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Nov 08, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

This year, Buffalo-based outfit Humble Braggers have been steadily sharing new tastes of synth-laden indie pop, building towards their sophomore full-length record, Love and Fear. The record follows after the band’s 2017 debut I Know Better, I’m No Better and their 2018 EP Cycle, adding new dimensions to their colorful synth pop sound. The full album is out later this week, but you can get an early listen to the record in full below, premiering with Under the Radar.

On Love and Fear, the band leans into the freewheeling possibilities of pop. The record opens with soaring indie pop parades like “Anymore,” “So Alive,” and “Only,” filling the early moments of the record with massive percussion, glitzy guitars, and a pastiche of slick new wave synths. Quickly though, the band begins exploring atmospheric synth soundscapes with “Understand,” bouncing dance pop like “Lost,” and a sweet dreamy ballad with “You Stick Around.” Even with the range of styles, each new dimension sounds fresh and vital, offering the dizzying hooks and neon-lit delights the band does best.

For their latest effort, the band says they drew inspiration from “a lot of Daft Punk and pop music. The longstanding ones…are Foals, Tears for Fears, M83. I don’t think we necessarily go out to write a song like any specific track or sound, I think we just follow the thread that makes sense when we start writing. This new album takes a lot of different sonic turns, some we’ve absolutely never tried before, and I think we get excited about continuing that.”

They continued, saying of the record: “The songs came about at different points and different times but the focal concept of what the songs are about came out of the idea of contrasts - the ups and downs of how you feel in life. The songs on the album that talk about love in relationships, in loving yourself, and in appreciating the love of the people in your life. The ones about fear are not only about anxiety, as I’ve written about in the past, but facing and accepting fear.”

Check out the full record below. Love and Fear is out everywhere on November 11th.