Album Review: A Letter From London

The final click on the [please download here] arrow, and the brand-new tunes from a now well‑established NZ band are available to my ears. The new 10‑track album from Jimmy Bonar (formerly from 3rd Wave) and Joey Vallis (formerly from The Dep Charges) is titled A Letter From London. This is their 4th album together as The Honeybee Rocket Scientists and is advertised as a little softer and more acoustic.

The album opens with faint, uneven cracking overlaid with long waves of guitar and synth-like tunes. Besides the welcoming “Yeah-Yeah, Yeahs” it is already a step away from the more grunge‑sounding earlier albums. In a way, the title of the opening track fits this shift well: Things Were Different.

As our own different life journeys go through relationships and other changes, this album lets us explore a little more of Jimmy’s and Joey’s world. Outside Looking In and So Far Away continue the softer sound and skilfully contained vocals. The voices together in harmony keep your attention even when you remembered their past surf-rock-sound. Life does not always have to go with a grunge soundtrack, and they prove it!

The introduction of a piano in Foreign Lands also seems far away from the drums‑and‑guitars only approach of songs like 7 6 on the album Vita est Circo. It displays the huge diverse reach the two men have. The 2023 album had also songs like Spring Flowers that are more mellowed than the 2026 sound.

The melody and lyrics of Foreign Lands will keep playing on repeat in your head. Especially if it was the last track on your car stereo. Maybe it’s because the slow repeating lyric in the chorus makes it easy to pick up and hum along too. The more rock‑sounding follow‑up song, Asking Questions, has clear guitar riffs and a reverb style that makes me think of The Beatles. Very relatable lyrics about still guessing answers gives you a clear and long, isolated vocal that gives chills.

The title track, A Letter From London, about a breaking relationship, has the drama of love all through it. Descriptive lines make the well‑travelled among us really feel the origin of the letter. A mention of Primrose Hill adds this song to the long list of artists using this open, grassy city park to create a feeling of being isolated or far from home.

Glass Castle and Fine Fine Love keep the album together, not making wild changes to the easy-listening feel. Contained percussion with crisp guitars where we can hear fingers sliding over strings make you feel the music is played live, or at least that the recording is real. (Or as die-hard fans will remember that their sound was previously described as “garage-style recordings”.)

A memory of the well‑known rock roots we got from The Honeybee Rocket Scientists still shines. The rolling guitar riffs on Pacific Ocean Blue take the city title and iconic red‑bus cover back to surf‑rock sounds somewhere along our own Ocean. It’s a lovely song about a love slowly burning out, with more gruntier-sounding of guitars.

Closing the album is a sweet lullaby. This either makes you want to restart the album starting again with the more energetic songs, or it’s the perfect close to a relaxing evening. The last sip or bottoms up of melted ice and whisky or get up and stretch the old surf legs and start a repeat.

If you listened to earlier albums and you loved songs like Hole In My Soul or Ragdolled the wild and rough sounds of dirty blues and grunge might feel missed on this new album. However, the use of smooth riffs, catchy drums and clever lyrics is handled with skill in this more acoustic new album. Rosella, the second‑to‑last track on the 2025 Surf Green album, would be a good explanation of how this new album sounds.

It is a great way to diversify an already diverse set list. Their 2020 debut album, Check Yourself had 17 songs crossing styles like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all the way to Nirvana. Admitting to my own love of their most played song Check Yourself and the overall love for grunge and rock, these deeper, slower songs are still playful and enticing enough to keep this album on the playlist.

All I want to know now is: when are you touring these songs? Letting us hear the mix and diversity of a live performance. Let us reminisce about our own journeys, and diverse playlists we collect. With a drink to the lips, while watching clever hands on strings, keys and drums, seems like a real treat.