There’s a particular kind of disorientation that comes from going home after years away and finding the streets are the same but nothing else is. That’s the territory Allan Jamisen works through on “Milk & Honey,” out July 14th. The Phoenix-based composer and painter wrote the song after moving back to the city following more than a decade in Denmark, and it carries the weight of trying to reconcile the place you remember with the place actually in front of you. Jamisen brought in longtime collaborator John X Volaitis to co-produce, whose credits include the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, and pulled in Danny Saber, a former high school bandmate and in-demand guitarist, for electric guitar.
The track opens on a dreamy stretch of twangy guitar and spacey synth before a bass line warms things up and brings in the vocals, delivered as a duet: “I’m a stranger in my hometown / Gone so long / There’s no right or wrong now.” It’s a plain, unfussy way to state the whole premise. From there it settles into a relaxed groove built around mellow piano and clean guitar, with the refrain “It’s another fine day / In the land of milk & honey” landing somewhere between sincere and a little ironic, which fits the subject matter.
The most interesting production choice comes midway through, when a saxophone slides into the arrangement, giving the whole thing a late-night, after-hours glow. It’s understated rather than showy, and it’s the element that pushes the track out of straightforward dream-pop and into sophisti-pop territory, the kind of smoothed-out sound Destroyer leaned into on Kaputt. Saber’s guitar stays in a similar lane, adding texture without pulling focus. The vocal harmonies do a lot of the emotional work, layered and warm enough to keep the track from feeling as unsettled as its lyrics actually are.
“Milk & Honey” follows recent singles like “Rock & Roll American” and “Closing In,” and it’s a quieter, more restrained entry in that catalog. It doesn’t resolve the question it raises about whether home changes or memory does, and that’s probably the point. Some songs about displacement want to land somewhere comforting. This one sits in the discomfort a little longer, and it’s better for it.
