Amperland, NY (studio album) by Pinegrove

From Mercury 01/20/2021 21:06

70 to 75 (Although overlong and filled with filler, some of these songs are truly killer! If you like Jason Molina or alt-country, then let Pinegrove keep you company.)

Somewhere within this 71 minute, 21 track release is a really tight and beautiful alt-country/indie folk album I could really like. As it is, the album for me doesn't flow and the songs don't seem memorable or worked over enough for me to REALLY like it (just like it, cuz I do like it well enough).

Almost all elements of the album are consistently good. I quite like the vocalist and all his emotional earnestness. I like the very straight-forward Americana production with clear drum tracks and some really gorgeous little keyboards and electric guitar and peddle steel touches. The sweet, ever so delicate harmonies, and on and on - all good stuff. Also some of these songs have the bones of some seriously gorgeous Indie Folk standards. For example, a song like "Dotted Lines" is stellar and almost reminds me of Songs: Ohia (high praise) in its emotionally vulnerable chorus.

Actually as I listen a second time to review this, what was a bit of slog before seems more like a still overlong and unfocused album but some seriously brilliant earthy jams. This time its less of a slog but the unevenness still sticks out and makes me think this could have been a 45-55 minute A grade, but instead its a B-. Anyway, now I'm rambling and getting majorly off track.

The songs which truly kill it here and instantly become some of my favorites of the year and some of my favorites of this genre in years are: "Morningtime", "No Drugs", "Dotted Line", the way too short "Thanksgiving", the really interesting rhythm of "The Metronome" (and everything about it really), "Endless" and the really solid rocker of a closer "Intrepid".

All in all like I've said and I repeat here cuz I'm not full of good ideas is that this album is really good. Fans of Magnolia Electric Company will probably find this to be a great 2021 fill-in for those vibes (if not remotely its quality...I advice just going and listening to early 2000s Jason Molina tbh). I wish it was shorter, less tracks fully worked over into gems. It feels like this is just the musicians having some song ideas floating around and going into a studio and churning out these ideas without much attention to detail or much of a discerning eye on which ideas and songs are just ok and which are potentially great. Not a fan of that style of album-making.