On April, 21, Seattle-based indie poppers The National Honor Society release their second full-length To All the Distance Between Us, with its ten songs lush, jangly, urgent, and anthemic. As the disc progresses, the four-piece taps into the spirit of the C86-era without mimicking any particular band, though of course, there are flashes of positive influence. Co-released on limited edition coke bottle green vinyl by Portland, OR’s Shelflife Records and Barcelona, Spain’s Discos De Kirlian, there’s also a limited run of CDs available through the Subjangle label of Pretoria, South Africa.
The National Honor Society is lead vocalist and guitarist Coulter Leslie, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jerry Peerson, bassist and backing vocalist Andrew Gaskin, and drummer Will Hallauer. In May of 2020, their first album To All the Glory We Never Had was released digitally and on CDr in an edition of 80 copies through Spain’s Kocliko Records,.
It’s a solid debut, with its worthiness extended and enlarged by To All the Distance Between Us, the new record displaying a deeper confidence that’s connected to the proliferation of brighter hues and an overall grander sweep, attributes heard immediately in the chime-laden and soaring opener “As She Slips Away.”
If unabashedly indie pop, The National Honor Society are plenty loud, and the reverberating bass thunder at the start “Control” portends a turn to outright heaviness. As the full band kicks in, the tide turns to hyperactive jangle but with intermittent bursts of sustained distortion that suggest The HNS could get as raucous and abrasive as A Place to Bury Strangers if they wanted to.
With “In Your Eyes,” they band takes a turn toward lush pop of a particularly ’80s bent, but they smartly don’t skimp on the hearty guitar soloing. And then “It’s Killing Me” offers a mild likeness to XTC (mainly in the vocal harmonies) that establishes an ’80s psych-pop undercurrent. “It’s Killing Me” also reinforces how The NHS’s playing often gets louder and thicker as the songs progress.
However, the harmonious guitar-pop of “Jacqueline” maintains an even instrumental thrust all the way through. “Remember the Good Times” begins side two by relaxing a bit and taking a turn to the sophisto complete with a nifty thread of angular jangle, though as the song nears its conclusion the intensity of the playing increases in combo with a sly slow fade out.
From there, “The Following” exudes a boatload of Reagan-era college radio pop ambience, while “The Trigger” digs in its heels, stretches out and dishes a few rock maneuvers. “Used to Be” strips away the lushness and doubles-down on the emotionalism on the way to a rousing conclusion. And in closing the record, “When the Lights Go Down” brings back a touch of that XTC ambience. The result is a satisfying finale.
Altogether, To All the Distance Between Us nicely essays The National Honor Society’s growth as songwriters and instrumentalists. If the album falls a little short of a knockout it’s a consistent pleasure from start to finish.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
