New Jersey-based group Pinegrove have shared their new single titled ‘Respirate‘. A crushing ballad, the track is the latest song to release from their forthcoming new album 11:11 (out January 28th on Rough Trade Records / Remote Control Records) and urges us to look out for and love each other. Listen to ‘Respirate‘ HERE.
“With ‘Respirate,’ I was thinking about the opportunity we had in the chaos Covid brought to redesign society so that it works well for more people, but that instead what’s unfolding is a doubling down on the same bent and venal structures that have resulted in so much inequity in the first place,” stated singer/guitarist Evan Stephens Hall. “So, how can we compassionately respond to such cold and blatant greed? How can we make sure to look out for one another in the absence of meaningful leadership and materially significant policy? We’ve been stranded but we will look out for each other—what choice do we have? The song is a reminder that we’re in this together.”
‘Respirate‘ follows the release of lead single ‘Alaska,‘ a brash two-minute banger. The FADER called it “a rollicking, diaristic barn-burner in the vein of Bright Eyes and early Arcade Fire, with catharsis wrapped around every chord,” while The New York Times raved: “The lyrics showcase the vivid poeticism of Hall’s writing while the song’s driving rhythm and fuzzy guitars create an atmosphere that’s at once emotionally restless and as warm as a hearth.” The band also teased an early track from 11:11 this summer called ‘Orange,‘ a song that decries government inaction in the face of imminent climate collapse. Consequencecalled it “poignant” while Paste called it “a slow, thoughtful song.”
Hall is big on multiple meanings. The leader of Pinegrove titled their sixth album 11:11 because of its layered significance: the numerals gesturing to a row of trees, or striped corduroy; the cornfields of upstate New York, or people shoulder-to-shoulder. But it’s also a special time, a “wink from the universe,” as Hall says, for those who witness it on the clock to wish for something brighter. “Calling the record 11:11 should be a heartening statement, though there’s certainly a range of emotion across the album. There’s much to be angry about right now, and a lot of grief to metabolise. But hopefully, the loudest notes are of unity, collectivity, and community. I want to open a space for people to feel all these things.”
The album sees the band build on their poetic blend of indie rock, folk, and alt-country, along with Hall’s earnest, open-hearted vocals and his penchant for writing emotionally direct, literate, introspective lyrics. Here, political and socially conscious themes permeate, and as he evolves as an artist, his resolve has only grown stronger – and more purposeful. 11:11 weaves these critiques through an accessible and sensitive work, which manages to be pointed without ever being didactic.
Noted producer and former Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla took on mixing duties, while Hall and Pinegrove multi-instrumentalist Sam Skinner co-produced. Hall credits Walla’s impeccably placed arrangement ideas as a vital voice at the table, moving on from the “crisp and contained” production on 2020’s Marigold, to more of a “messier” feel for these new songs. Pointing towards hope, love, grief, and anger, 11:11 seizes listeners with feelings of warmth, urgency, and soulful beauty – even as it asks some of life’s most difficult questions – through hook-filled songs that bury themselves in the senses and stay there.
11:11 will be available in all digital formats, physical CD, standard single black vinyl, deluxe single opaque red vinyl, and deluxe webstore-only single green vinyl through the Pinegrove and Rough Trade / Remote Control webstores.
