Today, New Jersey-based group Pinegrove announced their new album 11:11 will come out on January 28th through Rough Trade Records. Self-produced with mixing by Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, Tegan & Sara), 11:11 is the band’s fifth studio album following 2020’s Marigold. They also shared their lead single “Alaska,” a gallop of dense, bracing guitar-fueled rock that lurches out of the gate with tectonic force, boasting hooks at every turn.
Listen to ‘Alaska’ HERE.
Fronted by singer/guitarist Evan Stephens Hall, Pinegrove explore multiple meanings with 11:11, as they have with albums in the past. The title could be taken many different ways. On one hand, the numerals could resemble a row of trees – a nod to the album’s recurring theme of climate crisis, but also a playful way of self-titling the record. On the other, the numbers could represent numerology’s symbol for chance, coincidence, and synchronicity. They stripe like corduroy, or cornfields, or people shoulder to shoulder. Hall acknowledges it all.
“Calling the record 11:11 should be a heartening statement, though there’s certainly a range of emotion across the album,” said Hall. “There’s much to be angry about right now, and a lot of grief to metabolize. But hopefully, the loudest notes are of unity, collectivity, and community. I want to open a space for people to feel all these things.”
Throughout the band’s career, their captivating and artfully poetic blend of indie rock, folk and alt-country, along with Hall’s earnest, open-hearted vocals and his penchant for writing wry, literate and sometimes introspective lyrics, have endeared them to critics and music fans alike. At the same time, Hall has never shied away from tackling political and socially conscious themes, and as he evolves as an artist, his resolve has only grown stronger, and more purposeful.
11:11 continues that trend. An unqualified triumph, it seizes listeners with feelings of warmth, urgency and poetic beauty – even as it asks some of life’s big and difficult questions – through hook-filled songs that bury themselves in the senses and stay there. “It spends equal time on optimism, community, reaffirming our human duty to look out for one another even in the absence of the people we expect to do those things,” Hall continued. “What if we have to be our own salvation?”
This summer, Pinegrove teased an early track from 11:11 called “Orange,” a song that decries government inaction in the face of imminent climate collapse. Inspired by images depicting skies ablaze in the northwest, the band translated their frustration and anger into song. It was picked up by Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar, NME, and Consequence who called it “poignant” while Paste called it “A slow, thoughtful song.”
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 webstores. Pre-order/pre-save for all formats is available HERE.
Track Listing:
01) Habitat
02) Alaska
03) Iodine
04) Orange
05) Flora
06) Respirate
07) Let
08) So What
09) Swimming
10) Cyclone
11) 11th Hour
Pinegrove:
