Pet Fox have released Avoidant, the second song to be taken from Balance, and it is a quieter and more downcast thing than the title track the band led with earlier in September. Exploding In Sound has the album down for 23 October.
Theo Hartlett pointed straight at the opening line when he explained the song, saying the first line says it all. What follows is an admission of being stuck in a loop of thinking, and of how difficult it is to end something with a person who has given you no reason to end it. That is a harder subject than the usual break-up song, and it is why the track sounds apologetic rather than wounded.
The writing carries the same resignation. Hartlett sings about faking everything and about the whole business coming to a head, and the band plays under him without pushing, which leaves the confession exposed rather than buried in the guitars.
Balance is the follow-up to the self-titled work that has kept Pet Fox in the small circle of bands Exploding In Sound has built its roster around, and our earlier report on the album announcement set it out as their first record in four years. Two songs in, the pair sit at opposite ends of the same record: one energetic, one confessional.
Stereogum, which posted Avoidant on Monday afternoon, has been the main outlet carrying the rollout, and the band has not attached a tour to the album in any of the coverage so far. No tracklist has been published either.
The 23 October date is now on the release calendar, in a stretch of autumn indie releases that includes the Minneapolis band Porch Light's debut Hush. Balance will be the second Pet Fox album to come through Exploding In Sound, a label whose roster has stayed close to the kind of guitar rock Avoidant belongs to.
What the song does not do is signal a change of direction. Anyone who has followed Pet Fox through the last decade will recognise the shape of it, which is part of the point: the band has spent its career making small, precise records rather than reinventions.
The facts
- Pet Fox have released the song Avoidant.
- Balance arrives on 23 October through Exploding In Sound.
- The title track was the first song shared from the record.
- Theo Hartlett says the song is about ending a blameless relationship.
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