The Mynabirds
It’s Okay to Go Back If You Keep Moving Forward
OUR SECRET HANDSHAKE
Laura Burhenn’s voice and mind needed a break after her last Mynabirds LP in 2017, Be Here Now, with its stadium-sized pop-rock balladry and soulful activist anthems about punching Nazis in the face. Over the past eight years, Burhenn has continued that protest work and is currently leading the charge on Disarm Spotify as part of the BDS movement to divest from war and focus on art. Meanwhile, she’s also established the production company Our Secret Handshake in East LA, which has produced music videos, commercials, and concert films for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Hayley Williams, Phoebe Bridgers, and Animal Collective.
The Mynabirds discography feels like an exhaustive genre journey so far. Burhenn and previous collaborators have gracefully shifted from rootsy Americana to indie-folk and synth-pop experimentation over the course of four albums, and their fifth sees the project stripped down to its piano core. It’s Okay to Go Back If You Keep Moving Forward features three original songs alongside stripped-back acoustic versions of seven Mynabirds classics. “Ramona, Patron Saint of Silence” was born out of Burhenn’s moment of respite from making new music and reflecting on her next steps in the wake of the death of her dog and her grandmother. Recorded at 64 Sound and produced by Rilo Kiley’s Pierre de Reeder, the warm grand piano is pulling major weight here. There are no overdubs, no synthesizers, and no vocal modulation (Burhenn’s joke album title for a long time for this set was “AI Could Never”).
That piano slows it all down as Burhenn reclaims old songs from her discography. Be Here Now’s slinky rocker “Cocoon” gets introspective and drops the dance grooves, while What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood’s “LA Rain” retains its soulful vocal delivery but drops the swing beat. Elsewhere, Generals’s “Disarm” resets from an electronic indie-pop stomp fest to resemble more of a lost Cat Power track. Not all the old songs survive the devolution process. The vampiric anthem “Velveteen” from Lovers Know gets defanged, and Generals track “Buffalo Flower” loses its full-band swagger.
The three new tracks are where the album truly finds its footing and shows how far Burhenn has progressed as an artist since the first two Mynabirds releases, produced in collaboration with the late Richard Swift. “Different This Time” is meant for the grand piano as it relays its hope for new relationships in the wake of past destruction. “Drinking Song” and “Good Medicine” are two of the most brutal relationship takedown songs from 2025. Overall, the sadly underappreciated Mynabirds project gets a soft reset with It’s Okay to Go Back If You Keep Moving Forward. This release is a welcome spot for newcomers and older fans alike.
