Setting aside the combination soundtrack/live LP Amperland, NY, 11:11 is Pinegrove's first studio album since Marigold in January 2020. It finds bandleader Evan Stephens Hall reacting to a number of sociopolitical issues weighing heavily on his and many others' minds in the interim, including the onset of a prolonged pandemic, worsening climate change, and unresponsive politicians. The band's fourth straight effort (including Amperland) to be co-produced by Hall and bandmate Sam Skinner, 11:11 has a loose, there-in-the-room-with-them sound credited in part to Chris Walla (formerly of Death Cab for Cutie), who mixed the album with an eye to avoiding tightness, in the musical sense. The sound befits both the subject matter and heartfelt performances of songs like opener "Habitat," which keeps things further off-balance by alternating between tender acoustic stretches and angrier blasts of grungy guitar and drums. Through it all, lyrics recall images of the early 2020s, including the destruction of literal monuments to inequity. It also establishes Hall's simultaneously poetic and direct way with words early on, with lines like "I want to see the present tense/In retrospect/A monument/Been through benthic tides/And vandalized/Before my eyes/Before I die/Never forget, the t-shirt says/With no mask on." That song ends on a warm, ambling guitar solo and includes studio noise like shifting feet, buttons or pedals, and amplifier hum. Another reflective entry, the countrified waltz "Orange," shifts focus to climate change and government inaction ("Today the sky is orange/And you and I know why"), while the twangier "Respirate" examines the potential opportunity versus the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic with a message of solidarity ("No one's gonna rescue us"). Livelier tracks include the bouncy, two-minute "Alaska," the syncopated, more midtempo "So What," and the melancholy relationship rocker "Cyclone," which wrangles with grief. Throughout shifts in tempo, density, and electrification, Hall's bittersweet melodies are as affecting as his internal rhymes. Pinegrove has yet to deliver a clunker, and 11:11 should be a welcome addition to any fan's regular rotation, in addition to offering a few gems for anyone partial to a tuneful, earnest protest song. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

1		Habitat
2		Alaska
3		Iodine
4		Orange
5		Flora
6		Respirate
7		Let
8		So What
9		Swimming
10		Cyclone
11		11th Hour