Dive Into The Night

Ora Cogan “Honey”

In comic book art, or at least old-fashioned 20th century comic book art, one of the major roles of the inker is to embellish the penciled layout illustrations so it’s all crisply articulated in ink with subtle variations in line density. A masterful inker adds dimension and weight with precise brush strokes, and often compensates for flaws in the pencil art. It’s a very technical role in the process, but when it’s done right you get an extra bit of soul on the page.

The arrangement and mix of Ora Cogan’s “Honey” makes me think of a well-inked page. There’s a lot of ways the song could’ve sounded ordinary, but everything in the track has a carefully considered weight and dimension. There’s a lot of negative space in the music, making it feel airy and wide open. Every element is beautifully articulated and varied in its implied closeness to the ear, with an emphasis on how Finn Smith’s drums guide the track. I think this sort of balance and nuance is a goal of a lot of producers, but this work can get flattened out in the mastering. This isn’t the case for “Honey,” and so a song that might’ve topped out at “pretty good” based on the solid bones of the songwriting and a lovely vocal performance ends up startlingly beautiful.

Buy it from Bandcamp.