Pinegrove - Amperland, NY album review

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"Amperland, NY works equally great as an entry point for potential new ‘pinenuts’ as it does the soundtrack to Pinegrove’s titular high-concept arthouse film."

Pinegrove
(Image credit: Supplied)

PINEGROVE
Amperland, NY
ROUGH TRADE / REMOTE CONTROL

Showcasing all the best parts of the band’s idiosyncratic spirit, Amperland, NY works equally great as an entry point for potential new ‘pinenuts’ as it does the soundtrack to Pinegrove’s titular high-concept arthouse film. 

The charmingly analogue affair reappropriates 22 of the emo-country icons’ greatest and most emotionally stirring gems, adding to them deeper and more fleshed-out arrangements, a greater sense of cinematic opulence, and a perfectly struck balance between the rough, low-fi edginess of their early recordings and the crisp, polished shimmer of 2020’s Marigold LP. 

The earliest cuts obviously benefit most from this, but the record as a whole sounds resoundingly tight and calculated. And for those already deep in the band’s lore, there are plenty of little flourishes abound to make these cuts feel fresh.

Ellie Robinson
Ellie Robinson
Editor-at-Large, Australian Guitar Magazine

Ellie Robinson is an Australian writer, editor and dog enthusiast with a keen ear for pop-rock and a keen tongue for actual Pop Rocks. Her bylines include music rag staples like NME, BLUNT, Mixdown and, of course, Australian Guitar (where she also serves as Editor-at-Large), but also less expected fare like TV Soap and Snowboarding Australia. Her go-to guitar is a Fender Player Tele, which, controversially, she only picked up after she'd joined the team at Australian Guitar. Before then, Ellie was a keyboardist – thankfully, the AG crew helped her see the light…