The Babe Rainbow - Acid and Honey

The Babe Rainbow have been making sun-warped psychedelic pop from Byron Bay for over a decade, and Acid and Honey is the record where the joke and the craft finally arrive at the same time. Released in July 2026 on Eureka Music, it is loose, generous and completely unhurried, the sound of a band that has decided the studio is a good place to spend an afternoon.

The title track opens the album at six minutes, which sets expectations correctly: nothing here is in a rush to get anywhere. "Special" stretches out over five minutes of gently phased guitar and group vocals. "Waterfall" is the most immediate thing on the record and got its own film treatment. "Dream Gasoline" and "Wisteria" close out the second side in a haze of tape echo and harmony, and "Polymuscalsaccharide" is exactly as silly as the title suggests.

Angus Dowling, Jack Crowther and Elliot O'Reilly wrote and produced with Timon Martin, and the arrangements lean on woodwind, flute and layered vocals rather than distortion. The reference points are late-sixties sunshine pop and the more pastoral end of Australian psych, but the record never feels like a costume.

Pressed on vinyl for Eureka Music. Ideal warm-weather listening from one of Australia's most reliably charming bands.