VVonder - Stumble On
Huntsman Records
Released on June 13th, 2025
Last October, VVonder hit the stage at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg as the jazz-rock outfit Steely Dan for the autumn installment of the local cover show series Bands as Bands. Steely Dan isn’t an easy act to pull off, known for complex harmonies and proggy chord progressions, but VVonder is well suited to the task. Comprised of players who possess impressive musicianship and performance agility, the group can easily navigate the twists and turns of a tune like “Dirty Work.”
VVonder bring this same level of musical mastery and fun to their latest album, Stumble On. The new release maintains the catchiness and flair of 2022’s Now and Again, and could as comfortably soundtrack a drive to the beach as a post-breakup pump-up session.
In the first track, “Dr. Says,” a patient issues a plea for “a reason I should go on, when it feels like I’m already gone.” The song foreshadows the album’s 70s vibe, with a slick keyboard solo, a bridge spoken (as though from the therapist’s couch) over a danceable groove, and an earwormy outro that lists, in lush harmonies reminiscent of the Beach Boys or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, various pop culture doctors—Dr. Who, Dr. Dog, Dr. Phil, Dr. Zhivago, etc.—whom some might look toward in hopes of more nourishing treatment for the soul than “pills and books to read—all of the things that I don’t need.”
The songs are relentlessly hook-laden, despite frequently revisiting these themes of desperation and alienation. “Invisible Man” conjures scenes of dinner party dissociation: “Dinner at Eddie’s, with Julie and Kate, master of the conversation, eyes upon an empty plate …”
The song is accompanied by a delightfully kooky music video by Lasha Mowchun, in which frontman Micah Braun braves an eccentric gathering where guests are served a suspicious yellow entrée. The gelatinous dish makes the diners act like cats—a relatable analogy for anyone whose social skills have revealed themselves to be jarringly incompatible with their milieu. The distressed narrator refuses to swallow what the crowd is eating, suffering helplessly through several inaccessible conversation topics: “Heirloom tomatoes, spring in Des Moines, hunger turns to desperation, the kind I enjoy …”
“Waiting for the Sun” is a particular highlight, with its acapella intro and eerie harmonic shifts from dark to light. The impression is madrigal-like, though the haunting prog ballad’s subject is entirely contemporary. Braun sings, “Wasted another day staring at a screen, entertained by flashing pixels that amuse me,” mourning the familiar tragedy of “a day of life that I’ll never get back.” Anthemic guitar lines give a subtle serving of My Chemical Romance in the final iteration of the sadly ironic chorus, “We spend our days waiting for the sun, when it comes around for shade we run.”
“Cryin’ Out” branches into radio-friendly indie territory in the vein of OK Go or Sloan. A punchy, harmonized chorus anchors it—a commonality between many of the tracks, despite spanning a galaxy of rock subgenres whose prefixes include soft-, yacht-, garage-, prog-, and jazz-. VVonder play within familiar traditions that allow space for unique charm, often exhibiting Beatlesque chord turns—for instance, in the psychedelic chorus of “Birds”—and Kinks-y charisma, as in the guitar-driven “Shanana.”
The album’s title track takes a diversion into country for a cathartically nihilistic ditty—the cheerily sung line “Stumble on, oh no one knows what it’s like when you’re so far gone” perhaps hinting at a resigned peace achieved by the seeking patient back in “Dr. Says”—while the closer, “Here and Gone,” is an organ-drenched classic rock road song.
Stumble On is a satisfying listen for anyone feeling let down by the simpler formulas of streaming-friendly music, for those still hoping for a bridge, a crafty guitar solo, a riffy interlude between verses, a surprise modulation leading back to a singable chorus. Such songs could be slid into the cracks in the setlist of a Steely Dan show and would cause no disappointment.
