Seven albums in, and The Weather Station still feel like a well-kept secret. The Canadian band, led by singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman, have never had the breakthrough moment some of their peers have, but they have quietly carved out a discography full of gems.

The latest of those is Humanhood, a collection of songs that mostly recall the folk-jazz hybrid sound that Joni Mitchell explored through the 1970s and resulted in some of her most loved records. The Weather Station’s other albums, particularly Ignorance, have played around with this sound before but not to the extent as it is on Humanhood.

The album buzzes and crackles with life. The songs don’t always stick to the jazzy folk sound that permeates the album, with stark piano ballads and glitchy electronic numbers also making up the track list. But the album’s tracks have thematic similarities, meditating on environmentalism, anxiety, modern living and aging.

Following an instrumental intro, lead track “Neon Signs” sprawls with a laid back but propulsive jazzy piano groove that surrounds Lindeman’s voice. The song is a mediation on alienation, consumerism and emotional emptiness. “Living rough in a world without trust, having to rely upon the honesty of lust,” Lindeman sings. “Neon Signs” is one of 2025’s best songs and one of the best songs The Weather Station have ever made. The song burrows into your brain after a couple listens.

The jazzy inclinations continue on percussion driven “Mirror” which only bursts with fuller instrumentation on its choruses. “Ribbon”, a beautiful and stark piano ballad in the middle of the record hearkens back to some of the Weather Station’s earlier material. The title track pulses with banjo and saxophone as it describes a visit to the shore on a hot day. Lindeman muses about the fragility of life on Earth on “Humanhood”. “This citizenship in this history, in this moment in time, this fragile life, one of a generation that might end this world. I guess, nobody tells you how to bear this.”

Environmentalism has been a theme of the Weather Station’s music for years, including on the specifically eco-themed Ignorance. The electronic “Irreversible Damage” explores those environmentalist themes, although not in the way the band normally has. That song is mostly a spoken word track captures a monologue from Erin Orsztynova, in which she discusses a visit to a grassland, that, despite environmental devastation she describes as “it’s still beautiful, it’s still wild, it’s still alive”. The song is a contemplation on finding the beauty in what’s left in this world and the feeling of protecting what remains. It is the heart of the album.

“Sewing” closes the album on a somber note. It is another sparse song, with only drums and piano decorating Lindeman’s voice as she sings of piecing back a life together through all the uncertainty in modern life.

Humanhood is one of the Weather Station’s most rewarding albums. Tamara Lindeman’s lyrics buoy a set of rewarding jazz-folk, piano ballads and electronic elegies. The Weather Station are a band that seems to always fall under the radar, never as popular as some of their other Canadian indie peers. Like Ignorance before it, Humanhood argues they should be at the forefront of the scene. Humanhood is one of the first great albums of 2025.

Humanhood is available now on Bandcamp.