Pinegrove – “Everything So Far” Review
Posted: by Conor
Pinegrove are going to be your new favourite band. Hailing from Montclair, NJ and recently signing to Run For Cover Records, these guys are gonna blow up and when they do you’ll be glad you got in on the bottom floor. Everything So Far is exactly that, a compilation of the band’s output since forming back in 2010. Released earlier this year as a limited-run cassette, it was reissued by Run For Cover in October and man, if you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to do so immediately.
This record is perfect. I can honestly find no fault in this. It fits every mood, every time of day and I’m sure as hell it will fit every season. This is my album of the year, no question. What a band. Evan Stephens Hall (guitarist, singer, songwriter, genius) creates songs that make your heart swell and the hairs on your arms stand up. This record demands attention, it grabs your hand and pulls you away to this magical place you didn’t know existed, but once you’re there it feels exactly like home. Hall’s songwriting is both incredibly complex and full of imagery, whilst also so conversational and so unique, in the best way. “New Friends” has one of my favourite lines on the record and it’s beautiful in its simplicity: ‘Steve’s in Germany, that’s it. Try to think of anyone else…no, yeah, that’s it.’ Isn’t that the best? It feels like your connecting directly with Hall and with Pinegrove as a whole and that is one of the reasons this record will resonate with so many. It’s a record that you can feel things to.
It’s hard to pick an outstanding song in this collection because, well, they’re all just so good. The aforementioned “New Friends” opens the record with a bang and the perfect “Angelina” swiftly follows up. Hall sings ‘I love you like it’s the old days, when I could ask you anything’ and if this line doesn’t break you then, shit, you’re lucky. (On this song: check out the This Has Got To Stop session here – those harmonies. Woah.) Size Of The Moon is a heart-breaking slow burner and the line ‘if I did what I wanted then why do I feel so bad?’ has stuck with me and replays over and over. These songs, more than any I’ve heard for a long time, allow you that scope to really apply them to your own life. The best art opens itself to different interpretations, it allows people to take different things from it, and this is something that Pinegrove, and Hall in particular, are so good at.
“The Metronome” has the best riff on the record. This song is so goddamn catchy and Hall once again masterfully and swiftly breaks a thousand hearts in unison when he sings ‘I thought that we were falling in love but we weren’t; only I was’. The composition of this song and, well, every song on this record is so well thought out and delicate. There’s an overwhelming feeling that these songs were created with heart and emotion and with great care. They weren’t just written quickly by some kids who wanted to just be in a band, Pinegrove meant every note, every hit, every chord. This comes across so strongly and is why this band deserves all the plaudits that are coming their way and all of the incredible things that are in store for them. If you haven’t heard this record, I implore you, listen to it now. There is no chance you will regret it. (Conor)
Score: 9/10
