Humdrum have today released their new video and single titled ‘See Through You’ from their debut album ‘Every Heaven’ via Slumberland Records. With a debut song like this, and an album coming out soon, there is an anticipation and a curiosity that happens when a new band makes a memorable musical experience right from that first few bars.
Fun with friction and solstice with song, ‘See Through You’ is a proper introduction to that happy style music we so desperately need right now, in this moment.
About Humdrum & ‘Every Heaven’
Chicago indiepop band Humdrum, led by Loren Vanderbilt, announces its debut LP Every Heaven, out October 18 on the legendary Slumberland Records. You can pre-order it right HERE. Vanderbilt gives some background on the album’s lead single, “See Through You”:
“‘See Through You’ started as a voice memo that I hummed into my phone one night and then completely forgot about for at least a year, possibly two. After re-discovering the file as I was sorting my song ideas, I immediately picked up a guitar and started throwing it together. Lyrically the song is about the breadth of emotion you can feel when you love someone that also has the power to frustrate you, and how those emotions can intoxicate you for a moment, or many moments.”
When the world — and his previous band Star Tropics — crumbled in the early days of the pandemic, Chicago’s Loren Vanderbilt began rebuilding himself through song. Daydreaming to the chime of IRS-era R.E.M., Felt, The Railway Children, New Order, and 90’s staples like Ride, Pale Saints and Slowdive, he fell backwards in time through records as a means of escape. To break away from the present and embrace the nostalgia of musical eras gone by, Loren formed Humdrum — a band built around his favorite elements of dreampop, indiepop, shoegaze, and new wave.
On his debut album, Every Heaven, Loren establishes himself as a talented songwriter across 10 tracks brimming with jangly guitars and lovelorn vocals—all punctuated by the pulse of a driving beat. Slated for release by Slumberland Records on September 20, 2024, Every Heaven is Humdrum’s first collection of songs, presented on teal blue vinyl manufactured at Chicago’s own Smashed Plastic Record Pressing plant.
The album’s opener (and eponymous track) invites the listener in, with each guitar riff and beat slowly falling into place. As the gate is opened and disappears behind you, a new world is revealed of cascading pastel-colored reverb and the hum of guitar amps eager to feedback. The sound can be described as celebratory and introspective in a way that feels both familiar and unexpected.
A deeper listen reveals a juxtaposition between the album’s carefree melodies, and its sobering truths about the life, loss, and questions of being a queer 30-something artist. In the song “There and Back Again,” Loren references the final Sarah Records release to catalog the on-again-off-again moments of a relationship with the lines, “Will we make it ‘round the bend / or are we too tried to be true?”. The following track, “Superbloom,” is far more romantic in its playful optimism, as Loren sings, “In the heavens where you run to / I’ll be running right beside you / don’t you wanna run away with me too?”
Ultimately, Every Heaven centers around departure and return, the devastation of loss and the hope for renewal. The pause between heartbeats for some may be an instant. For others, it can feel long and silent, and if they are lucky, the next beat arrives on time, springing them back to life. Humdrum is this moment for Loren. With Every Heaven he has presented 10 songs that speak to life’s dynamic moments, and he can’t wait for you to hear them.
Featured image by Dale Price.
Tracklist
- Every Heaven
- There And Back Again
- Superbloom
- Wave Goodbye
- Test of Time
- See Through You
- Eternal Blue
- Ultraviolet
- Come And Get Me
- Underneath The Sky
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/HEYHUMDRUM
https://x.com/HEYHUMDRUM
https://www.facebook.com/heyhumdrum
https://heyhumdrum.com/
https://heyhumdrum.bandcamp.com/
