Humbird shows in Belgium and the Netherlands are coming up

It feels good to be right—and Humbird knows that satisfaction well—but what happens when certainty slips away? We crave the ease of confidence, yet there’s another state: being unsteady, angry, swayable, and still doing your damned best. There’s something refreshingly humane in that uncertainty, in having the guts to try even if you might be wrong. That spirit forms the central tenet of Humbird’s third full-length album, Right On: a radical ethos in this soapbox age, and an effort worth turning up the amps for, resulting in the project’s most electric, playful, and mettled record yet.

Siri Undlin (the songwriter behind the moniker) and her collaborators tracked live and to tape over the course of two muggy weeks in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. For a collection of songs unafraid of ambiguity, it’s music that bares its teeth. Anger and dismay sizzle in response to current events. Heartbreak feels like sandpaper, while wildflowers bob and sway in an ever-expanding universe.

Produced by Shane Leonard and featuring regular contributors Pat Keen (bass, synth, percussion) and Pete Quirsfeld (drums and percussion), the majority of the songs showcase the locked-in rock trio, a progression from the contemplative folk musings of Undlin’s previous releases. Even so, Right On incorporates friendly winks to the more whimsical, soundscape-y improvisations that audiences have come to expect from a Humbird performance - electrified, gritty, Midwest Americana with a little magic fairy dust thrown in.

“Right On,” the title track and first song of the album, opens the record with a tone of resigned tenacity. ‘I’m not mad, but I should be / since true love proved unlucky / I cast the dye, I stained my hands / on wrongful judgments and half-baked plans.’ As the song moves through time and space, “being wrong” feels less and less like a failure, and instead transforms into guiding wisdom. The warm tremolo of the guitar maps along the grooves of the rhythm section, creating an atmosphere of inviting imperfection, a clever catalyst for the chorus’ simple melody to launch and land right in the tender part of your sternum.

For loyal fans and new listeners alike, Right On is a mischievously kind offering: a whole heap of songs that are unafraid to bask in the perfectly ordinary and also excruciating possibility that sometimes we’re right, often we’re wrong, but no matter what, music can meet us where we’re at and keep us company along the way.

Go see Humbird in Belgium and the Netherlands this month:

23/01: Diksmuide, BE - 4AD
27/01: Leiden, NL - Q-Bus
28/01: Groningen, NL - A-Theater