Album Review: Everything So Far by Pinegrove

True to its billing, Everything So Far collates all of the early recordings by New Jersey band Pinegrove, whose affecting amalgam of emotionally ragged indie rock and dark Americana influences have made them a critical favorite with a fervent cult following. The band revolves around the songwriting of singer/guitarist Evan Stephens Hall, who initially began uploading music under the Pinegrove banner in 2010 while a full band began to coalesce around him. Over the next five years, Hall and his growing ensemble independently released a steady stream of EPs, singles, and one full-length album (2012's Meridian) before signing with Run for Cover Records in 2015.

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"Is there anyone here I know?" Evan Stephens Hall questions on opening track "New Friends", an outstretched hand inviting listeners into the word the band have created. A compilation of the group's output prior to Cardinal, through introspection and wonder Everything So Far is a soundtrack of youth in all of its splendour. Immersive in its inclusion, the album couples open admissions with lingering melodies, layering alt rock refrains with a slight country twang.

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New Jersey's Pinegrove recently declared themselves a band on a mission: to resist Donald Trump's agenda on all fronts. On this sprawling collection of their recordings preceding 2016's breakthrough album, Cardinal, they sometimes sound less sure of their musical direction. But its scrappily charming recent-history snapshots reveal a band of exploratory instincts, prepared to wear hearts on sleeves.

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S omewhere between the proto-emo of the likes of the Appleseed Cast and the backwoods folk of Whitney (with a dash of Sufjan Stevens' banjo work to sweeten the deal), lies New Jersey based outfit Pinegrove, a band who emerged from the depths of Bandcamp to appear on numerous end-of-year-lists with their 2016 album Cardinal. Capitalising on that surprise success, Run for Cover records have rereleased this compilation of the band's early work. Everything So Far does a nice job in charting the Pinegrove's progression into the bookish and lovelorn brand of indie rock they later perfected on Cardinal, marked out by vocalist Evan Stephens Hall's quavering tenor and perambulating and pleasingly funny guitar lines.

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