Inequity, cold greed, "the same bent and venal structures,"—these are the things that Pinegrove's songwriter and heady leader Evan Stephens Hall rails against in the band's new album 11:11, calling for "change that centers people over profit" in the process. Often described as a "poet" by his most devoted, at times cultish fans, Hall wears that unwieldy moniker with pride, assisted this time out by longtime collaborator Zack Levine on drums, along with multi-instrumentalist Sam Skinner, bassist Megan Benavente and guitarist Josh F. Marre. Hall's father Doug contributed keyboards to these sessions in what the official bio calls "remote and calculated risk sessions." Produced by Chris Walla, formerly of Death Cab for Cutie, 11:11 was recorded at two upstate New York studios: Levon Helm in Woodstock and The Building in Marlboro. The sound is the best of any Pinegrove record to date, capturing the band's often dramatic rise-and-fall arrangements with the needed separation between instruments, and a persistent focus on Hall's vocals. Despite all the preciousness his words often suggest, Hall's tunes are most often sweet, slow indie rock that often unwind into folk rock marked by his ringing vocals and literate wordplay, in which he can sometimes get lost. Unobscured by Hall's pretensions is his songwriting, which has continued to grow in appeal and complexity since the band's timid 2012 debut album Meridian.
Favoring sweet, descending chord progressions, Pinegrove never quite rocks out and yet a tune like opener "Habitat" manages to incorporate a crash in its loud-soft arrangement. That dynamic returns in "Iodine," another mid-tempo rocker made irresistible by the layering of Levine's restrained drumming and Hall's voice, which as the center of all the band does means the volumes are kept down so the lyrics come across. Over time Hall's vocals have grown more confident, and are much better recorded now (which may be a matter of him learning to like how he sounds on record). Although a certain sameness sets into Hall's confessional, long-lined narratives by the album's end, there are enough surprising melodic turns on 11:11 to keep all his idea very listenable. © Robert Baird/Qobuz