We recently had the distinct honor to check out the new single “Switching Tracks from Travels With Brindle, Chelsea Spear’s Cambridge-based lo-fi ukulele-pop project. It’s available for streaming release today, May 5, and serves as the final single before the June release of debut album Notes From Undergrad.

You can listen to “Switching Tracks” on Spotify Here and on Apple Music Here

Switching Tracks” is the fifth single to be featured on Travels With Brindle’s forthcoming debut album,
Notes From Undergrad, out June 2. The record was made possible in part by a $5,000 COVID relief grant
from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, one of 3,000 awarded to artists from across the
commonwealth. Spear will air out this new composition, and others from the record, at Union Music in
Worcester on May 20, and the official Notes From Undergrad album unveiling party goes down –
appropriately enough – at the Somerville Public Library on June 1, the eve of the album release

We have no doubt that the single will sound as lively and impactful in a public forum as it does on the streams. With its upbeat demeanor and melancholic bounce, “Switching Tracks” furthers the central themes of the album, which takes inspiration from Elif Batuman’s 2017 novel The Idiot. The book takes place over the protagonist Selin’s freshman year at Harvard University, not too far from where Spear once cut her musical teeth as a busker. And like previous singles “Ivan,” “Linden Street,” “Something’s Wrong,” and last holiday season’s “Rudolph’s Ranch,” Spear’s latest indie-pop entry not only continues to illustrate her knack for melody and songwriting, but also pulls back the curtain on the themes of love, loss, and longing that glide through the record.

‘Switching Tracks’ is about the moment you cross paths with a crush and realize they’re not as great
as you thought they were, and that realization frees you,” Spear says. “It’s inspired by a moment at the
end of The Idiot when Selin and Ivan finally talk about her feelings for him and his inability to
reciprocate them. I also experienced two friend break-ups in a three-year period, so a lot of the fresh
pain comes from not being able to say some of the things I really wanted to say to them.”
Spear adds: “I think ‘Switching Tracks’ speaks to the disillusionment that can accompany the end of a
friendship or a crush. The mood is very ‘I was into that?’ It’s releasing that longing into the world, but
not without a sense of disappointment.”

We couldn’t help but fall in love with the brilliant honesty that is found within “Switching Tracks” from Travel With Brindle . We found ourselves having an instant connection with the magnificent and memorable melody and finding a relatable and honest truth within the lyrics.

So grab your tickets and climb aboard for a most delightful musical experience from Travels With Brindle and the absolutely stunning new track “Switching Tracks”