When I bought a house in 2014, certain albums instantly became backyard staples. Records like Jenny Lewis’ The Voyager and Real Estate’s Atlas were the perfect soundtrack for sitting on the deck with a beer while the sun went down, easing into adulthood with some idyllic soft-rock from the indie realm. Another favorite from that moment was Pure X’s Angel, a batch of languid roots-rock tracks that seemed to have been expressly designed for those twilight domestic moments.

Pure X have been more or less on hiatus since then, with no output these past six years besides a 2017 solo album from Jesse Jenkins. But they’re about to return in 2020, a year when people are spending a lot of time in their backyards by default. The band will be back with their self-titled fourth LP on May Day, and they’re teasing it today with a pair of excellent lead singles. “Middle America” and “Fantasy” successfully infuse latter-day Pure X with a bit of the distortion that characterized the band’s early work, resulting in songs that sound like a lingering memory of classic rock.

Both songs rule, so listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Middle America”
02 “Here In Hollywood”
03 “Angels Of Love”
04 “Free My Heart”
05 “Making History”
06 “Fantasy”
07 “Man With No Head”
08 “How Good Does It Get”
09 “Slip Away”
10 “Grieving Song”
11 “Stayed Too Long”
12 “I Can Dream”

Pure X is out 5/1 on Fire Talk. Pre-order it here.