Balance: Pet Fox tighten the screws after the move

Balance is Pet Fox's fourth full-length. The math-y aggression is still there, turned toward a sharper kind of melody. The guitars slip and jab, the rhythms twist, and the songs hold their shape anyway, which sounds like friction used on purpose.

The career explains the tension. Pet Fox released Pet Fox in 2018, Rare Occasion in 2019 and A Face in Your Life in 2022, records that pushed against the unease of modern life with overdriven guitars and rhythms that refused to sit still. Theo Hartlett writes the songs and sings and plays guitar; Morgan Luzzi plays bass and Jesse Weiss plays drums. Across those records Hartlett's writing has sharpened, and the band has kept the musical telepathy that has grown with each release. The vocals on Balance are more assured than before, which matters when the lyrics are full of strained pleas and interior probing.

Balance is out October 23 on Exploding In Sound Records. It is nine tracks, and it was made after Hartlett moved away from Boston and away from his other bandmates. The trio found new avenues to explore from that distance, and the record does not pretend the distance is not there. The songs circle emotions that struggle to close metaphorical distances, which gives the album its title and its tension.

The sound comes from over-driven guitar lines that turn into crunching, distorted chords, with Luzzi's bass weaving between jerky drum rhythms. Tempos twist and guitars jab. Hartlett's vocals can push their limit, then pull back into a detached shadow. The best songs make that contrast pay. "Moving Along" is one of the knottiest: guitar interjections slip up and down the fretboard, the bass stays flexible, and the rhythm shuffles under hefty drum fills. Hartlett's vocal is softer and more assured, a smooth, melodic coo set against lyrics of strained insecurity.

"Holding On" is the album's most direct collision of post-hardcore ingenuity and pop instinct. The guitar lines slip, then land on crunching, distorted chords, the bass weaves through jerky rhythms, and Hartlett's voice pushes at its ceiling while the tempo twists under him. The song could fall apart at any turn. It holds because the trio keeps the hook in view.

"Redo Everything" jerks and pulls, its detached vocal set against guitars that jab at the nerves. "For Sale," the closer, relaxes the rhythm without lowering the guard. The vocal stays shadowy, then the song flows into pop melody with real force. It is the clearest proof on the record that Pet Fox can be aggressive and tuneful at once.

The slow-burner "My Only Virtue" carries mid-west punk earnestness in the vocal. It comes close to anthem territory without becoming maudlin, and the openness pushes somewhere uncomfortable. That is the album's emotional center: a strain to say the thing plainly while the guitars keep interrupting.

Balance is for anyone who keeps Ovlov, Krill and Unwound near the front of the shelf, and for listeners who want pop melody under a layer of noise. It will test anyone who needs clean verse-chorus resolution; the pleasure here is in the knot. The flaw is the detached vocal posture on "Redo Everything" and "For Sale," which keeps some of the strained pleas at arm's length and costs the record a little blood. That distance never sinks it. Balance earns a 4.0 because Pet Fox have made tension feel like a form of melody, and because the trio sounds more sure of its own strange shape than ever. The strain is real, and it is the reason to put the record on again.

The tracklist

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