Out today, Carly Pearce shares her fourth studio album – hummingbird – a meaningful exploration of relationships that reads as the second chapter to 29
2021 was a massive year for Carly Pearce. A year after the news of her divorce from fellow country singer Michael Ray, she released what was to be a ground-breaking record – 29: Written in Stone – that earned her her first Grammy Award, a win for Female Vocalist of the Year at the CMAs followed and the same year she realised a lifelong dream of becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Three years on, Pearce is now set to release her long anticipated brand new album – hummingbird – tomorrow that marks a new musical chapter with Pearce’s debut as a co-producer. Her confidence in herself as an artist both lyrically and sonically was clearly buoyed by the success of 29 and that has carried over into this new record.
One of the seminal through lines of 29: Written in Stone was Pearce’s love affair with country music, and it was this lack of fear to dive deep into the history and Pearce’s love for the genre that made that record such a sonic success. On hummingbird, this love affair has carried through into hummingbird and Pearce has dug her heels in even deeper, beginning with the album opener ‘country music made me do it,’ a 90s country-hued track about that very idea. Indeed, ‘fault line’ another clever pre-released track is infused with the glory of classic country, it’s a story about blame and a toxic relationship and Pearce shared of the track upon it’s release, ‘“fault line” is my little ode to the era of country music that made me fall in love with it. When I was little, my grandpa bought me album sets from every decade of country music and told me to study it. I fell in love with the early sounds & wrote this song as if I was an artist living in that time. I can’t help but hear Tammy & George singing it in my head.’ That energy runs deep throughout the track on the track about living on the rifts of a relationship. ‘We’re livin’ on a fault line / Right down the middle of this house / Between the whiskey and the red wine / It’s like we’re standin’ on shaky ground… / And the fault is always mine.’ The title track of the record itself – hummingbird – harkens to those bluegrass roots, telling the story of the journey of falling in love. It’s a mature and lyrical ode to that journey, couched in classic country sounds. ‘Ooh, and the hummingbird flies on by / ‘Cause it hates goodbye and so do I.’ Pearce’s vocal is haunting on the track, creating a mesmerising sonic landscape couched in a bluegrass framing. This message serves as a statement for the record that feels lighter and more hopeful than 29, yet in many ways retains heartbreak as its thesis and core – albeit in healing and hopeful turns. There is space now to add levity to heartbreak.
So, second track ‘truck on fire’ is a bluegrass, boot-stomping track, replete with a stonking fiddle part that takes the catchy, clever refrain’Liar, liar, truck on fire / Flames rolling off of your good year tyres / Burn, burn you’re going to learn / Never should have put your lips on her.’ Elsewhere, ‘heels over head’ reads as Side B of ‘Next Girl,’ ‘I bet you’re head over heels this time / You love the way that she blows your mind / Now I see why you’d leave me / ‘Cause she makes easy look so easy.’ The track is a sarcastic track that reads as more cheeky and fun, poking fun at the guy taking the ‘easier’ option, after the heartbreak of her previous chapter, and it is riotously fun, particularly that witty second line of the chorus. ‘rock paper scissors’ is another rip-roaring, bluegrass driven track that reads as Side B to ‘diamondback’ that is a clear oil pour on her short-lived marriage. ‘He brought a rock, we signed the paper / Now I’m taking a pair of scissors to the pictures and the brand new set of bedsheets from the night we said I do.’ The production is kicked up a notch, from the intricacies of the fiddle part to the vocoder touch on her vocals, igniting a fire in the belly of the song. Finally, ‘woman to woman’ rounds out the lighter edges of the record – another wittily written track that acts as a cautionary tale to the next woman. ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire / And damn he’s cookin’ / Making his way from woman to woman.’
This is not to say that there isn’t real emotional heft to hummingbird. That gravitas is Pearce’s signature and she has a capacity unlike any other country artist to infuse raw emotion into every breath of her material. So, ‘we don’t fight anymore’ featuring Chris Stapleton is an easy standout on the record, a powerful and interesting track that tells the story of a couple living out a passionless relationship, where both just tolerate the other. It’s heart-wrenching both sonically and lyrically, brought to life with the emotion that both artists infuse into their material. ‘We don’t yell ’cause what the hell difference would it make? / We don’t cuss and we don’t care enough to even hate.’ This theme of toleration is carried through on ‘pretty please’ is a vulnerable track as Pearce pleads to a lover to love her again rather than show her the indifference that she’s felt recently. ‘Nothing I try drives him wild.’ ‘Tell me it ain’t the alcohol / That’s got you feeling things you ain’t felt before / Buy me one more / Tell me I’m fine…. Tell me I’m pretty please.’ It’s a surprisingly raw and emotionally vulnerable track that deserves real notice.
Pearce seems to have found real peace on this record, but there are still moments of looking back on this pain and the complexity of moving on. On ‘oklahoma,’ Pearce’s vocals are transcendent on this track, about being unable to escape the pain of losing a loved one. ‘I might be in Oklahoma, but I’m not OK.’ The track is more tender than we have heard from Pearce recently, building a cinematic, orchestral backdrop that elevates this track as one of the more emotional moments on the record. Elsewhere, on ‘my place’ tells the universal story and pain of watching an ex move on from a relationship. Pearce tells the story so tenderly and delicately. It’s vulnerable and beautiful, simultaneously heartbreaking and healing. ‘Does he know me as a memory? / Is she enough to forget me?‘ The magic of Pearce is in her ability to pour her whole heart into her recorded tracks, a self-evident fact on this track, that she opens up on ‘still blue,’ a bluegrass-fuelled track about carrying on after heartbreak. ‘The sky was still blue after you left / Sun still rose, sun still set / I went out on the town with no regrets / In my Levi Jeans still blue.’ The only external cut – and a rarity for Pearce – comes on ‘things I don’t chase’ penned by Robyn Dell’Unto, Kat Higgins and Ava Supplesa. It’s a quieter, stripped back about watching a man walk away. ‘Cowboys and whiskey are two things I don’t chase.’ It’s a mark of Pearce’s mastery over her craft and confidence in her own artistry that she completely makes the track her own, infusing it with the emotional pain and longing of being left.
Finally, there is an immense amount of hope on the record for love and life, as Pearce points to on the penultimate track ‘trust issues.’ The track is a sheer delight, as Pearce sings about a new love who makes her forget who ‘ever gave me these trust issues.’ It’s utterly charming.
What is self-evident on hummingbird is the fact that Pearce has gained an immensity of confidence since 29: Written in Stone. She knows who she is as an artist and now as a co-producer, carrying through her sonic signatures from that time period, though lyrically adding more levity and humour. hummingbird is a delight from start to finish that paints Pearce as an artist and woman full of independence, humour and originality.
