Bonny Doon
“Lucky Ones”
ANTI- (available via Bandcamp)
I’m so endlessly pumped that Detroit’s Bonny Doon is back on the scene after a three-year absence.
The band’s last album, Let There Be Music, is still on heavy rotation for me. It’s a delightful chill folk-pop record that fits for fans of Real Estate and Waxahatchee, which Bonny Doon once toured with and backed up on her breakout album St. Cloud back in 2020.
And damn! They’re all grown up and doing their own thing on their return single, “Lucky Ones,” which comes with an explicit warning and could have easily fit onto Tom Petty’s 1994 album Wildflowers. It’ll be featured on their upcoming album, Forever Green, due February 5 via ANTI-.
“Look what you got now, look what you lost
Hand behind your back with your fingers crossed
America, what did you do?
Fuck him and fuck you too”
Yeah, there’s a bit of anger here from Bonny Doon frontman Billy Lennox, who views “Lucky Ones” as an anthem for those working hard to get by but having a tough time even doing that.
“Most people scrape by and can barely afford to live despite working their ass off,” Lennox said in a statement, going on to say it's a “culmination of grievance and frustration both personal and collective,” noting that after more than a decade in the band, he was still bartending until 3 a.m.
I can confirm the truth behind that sentiment after seeing Lennox around Detroit for years (I think the band has moved their operations to Los Angeles as of late, but we’ll always claim them as a Detroit band), hustling at various service industry jobs while being very excited to get signed to a label like ANTI- with a major reach and fanbase.
Let’s hope these great artists behind Bonny Doon can crack the code with “Lucky Ones,” their biggest and brightest song yet, and truly make a living as artists doing what they love.
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