William Fussell, the chief member of Honey Harper, was sure the band's first album, 2020's Starmaker, was going to change his life. "I was projecting my own experiences onto it, which was this constant struggle in trying to get people to listen to your music and get it out there ... ," he has said. "It's not about glamorizing the whole thing; it was more about how kind of sad the whole process can be." Things only got more fraught, though, when the record's release coincided with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic—and the world shutting down. Fussell & Co. explore that "depressive" time on the band's second album. On ballerina-pretty "The World Moves," with a Sturgill Simpson style of plain-spoken desperation, Fussell reveals the dream is a heavy weight: "Sometimes I'm so tired of making music/ I just wanna live/ But it's all on me." The band goes even more in depth on the excellent "Hard to Make a Living," which puts a bit of Harry Nilsson's pop cheek into what is becoming Honey Harper's view of cosmic country. "I wanted to investigate the idea that, in the music industry, if you haven't made it by a certain age, then you're not going to make it at all, and I ended up writing about the Greek myths of Daphnis, Narcissus and Hyacinth: all young, beautiful boys whose lives were taken away from them before they really had a chance to live," says Fussell's life and music partner, keyboardist Alana Pagnutti. "Please don't let me fall/ 'Cuz it's hard to make a living when you're not living at all," Fussell sings. But Honey Harper & the Infinite Sky is vibrantly alive. Nodding to '70s SoCal country-rock, "Reflections" shimmers—an intriguing contrast to Fussell's low, shadowy vocals—like a desert trip on psychedelics. "Broken Token" plays with the conventions of Southern rock: woozy with Duane Allman-style guitar, roiling honky-tonk piano and a gospel-choir chorus (not to mention charmingly relaxed harmonies from guitarist and bassist Mick Mayer). The Clapton-like ballad "One Thing" rolls in like rain relief after a day of sweltering heat and tension. And then there is "Boots Mine Gold," which has the balls to set Waylon Jennings' outlaw country attitude atop a chill disco beat—complete with congas and winky "I Will Survive" and "Stayin' Alive" references. That song's not the only country contradiction. "Ain't No Cowboys in Georgia," with its piercing steel guitar and whiskey-warm slow-pour piano, commits a bit of Mother Church blasphemy: "I'm sick and tired of three chords and the truth/ I think I'm ready for some computer blues." The showstopper is "Heaven Knows I Won't Be There." Grand and sob-worthy, it reveals the musical intersection of Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird," with Fussell doing some mash-up of Elvis Presley and Spiritualized's Jason Pierce—sing-speaking the chorus while a celestial choir floats all around him. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz