The second album from Hyooman, Nothing New, showcases the mastery of indie and alternative rock song structures that defined Pilot, the band’s 2022 release. There is an abiding sense of contentment. Even conflict is cheery in Moua’s lyrics, “All my friends / they don’t get along / but they play along / choo choo choo choo.” The music often chugs along the track arriving on time with a long ring out. 

The bright, sometimes fuzzy guitars couple with the rich tones of the bass and keys to form an ornate wall of sound. I hear big blue skies. These songs achieve tension and release through developments in rhythm, layering of tonal elements, and subtle shifts in the bass that anticipate the changes.

The lyrics focus on little things like the birds that shit on our lawns, a tour shirt from 1991, chewing edamame. And then through the magic of harmonies, repetition, and careful juxtaposition the mundane object is elevated to the super-mundane. We are chewing on more than Edamame.

This is the kind of album that I like on a roadtrip. Good times for everyone singing along with these beautiful harmonies. The music moves naturally, if predictably, in service of the story told by a careful observer of ambiguities and ironies. The album is sustaining, uplifting and at every turn pleasantly in service of real life, like a conversation with an old friend.