7 years have passed since peaer released their last record A Healthy Earth. Time has changed peaer, now fully coming back on Doppelganger as a way to reestablish themselves as a band. It goes over a sonically straightforward approach for sure, but it’s a refinement all the same.

What happened after peaer released A Healthy Earth in 2019 has been focused more on changes needed to keep themselves afloat. With COVID and continuous hiccups in the music space hampering their overall careers as musicians, introspection and career shifts have become a reality for Peter Katz, Thom Lombardi, and Jeremy Kinney. A break that’s desperately needed for musicians like them to keep on going.

And keeping on going, they did. Seven years after their last record, peaer has gathered enough of their energy to pull together a new record under their belts. Given their overall situations, it makes sense why Doppelgänger is titled as such. It’s a record that revels in that existential introspection, filled with questions and looking back on what went on in the past as they keep on walking in the present. The writing style becomes less focused on conventional structures, emphasizing the weighty stream of consciousness that Peter Katz ruminates upon. “End of the World” immediately starts this off, juxtaposing the chipper grooves with his sombre lyrics: “I don’t know what I want, I don’t know what to say / I count the little moments that make up my day / And I put them on display before retreating into the fray”.

The rest of the album becomes an arc of making sense of those emotions and changes that might still be unsure for Peter Katz, where muted maturity (“No More Today”), political observations from 2016 that are still relevant today (“Part of the Problem”), and working full-time (“Button”) become major parts of his life that he now accepts, even if there’s a curiosity of the what-ifs that might direct his life differently.

All those what-if curiosities now get to be brushed aside eventually, as looking forward becomes the endpoint for the album. “Bad News” is an internalized self-talk on taking chances in making music once again, and “Future Me” is a soft pat on the back, where the lo-fi tenderness backdrop sets the scene for Katz’s past self talk to the future self with optimism: “Future me, are you there? have you even gone anywhere? have you stayed still stagnant? stuck like a magnet? / if its so, let it go, there is still so much room to grow”. It ends the record with a path moving forward, one that is worth taking.

The make-or-break factor lies in its sonic presentation, now straddling more straightforward indie rock tones that might not capture the colorful flair of ‘A Healthy Earth’, but this becomes an intended approach for paear. In returning back to making music, they’re willing to focus with simplicity in mind, yet carrying enough refinement along the way, where the production from drummer Jeremy Kinney leverages the melodies in a warm light. “Just Because” is a great case to show said refinement, bringing textural heft and mixing space that lets the nimble grooves and Peter Katz’s methodical vocal lines to show off their richness.

This continues even further. On “No More Today” and “Rose in My Teeth”, subtle vocal reverbs on Katz’s calm singing create a bliss around quaint melodies leading to sharp guitar riffs. And on “Button” and “Bad News”, bright keys and vocal harmonies glide around the composed rhythms that settle in its gentle stability on the former song, but playfully jitters with distorted guitars on the latter.

To bring it back together, what paear pulled on Doppelgänger is not a evolution of sound, but rather a refocusing of presence. After everything that has occurred for them, where the passing of time and the events that come along with it has caused them to rethink decisions in their lives, they manage to come back once again with their spirits renewed, and their musicianship refined. It might have been a long time coming, but with that internal doppelgänger extinguished, it allows paear to grasp something meaningful: thoughtful strength.

order doppelgänger by peaer HERE