The Smith Street Band don’t change too much, they just get better at being The Smith Street Band. New single ‘Birthdays’ sees the band tread new ground with a synth driven bridge and guest vocals from Melbourne singer-songwriter Jess Locke, but it is undeniably both a progression and also a song that captures the same magic that is apparent in the rough recordings of South East Facing Wall six years ago.

Written about a chance meeting on a pier in Hobart, the song is full of the endearing, honest and delicate lyrics that Wil Wagner has become so adept at writing. The song moves from a typically rousing Smith Street chorus to some gorgeously peaceful interludes that cut through with a soft and wonderful calm – encapsulated perfectly in the lyric, “Wanna be alone, wanna be surrounded, wanna be transient, wanna be grounded,  but all the dissonance disappears from me, when you drape your arm across my knee intentionally lazily.”  It’s sweet, wholesome and beautiful. The sound of a band that are confident and comfortable in their creativity.