It's been a productive 18 months for PACKS, the Toronto/Ottawa band lead by the songwriter Madeline Link. The band released one of the more celebrated debuts of the pandemic with their album Take The Cake, which was released on Fire Talk Records and Royal Mountain Records in 2021. That album earned praise from The FADER who compared their "reluctantly anthemic slacker rock" to Pavement and Speedy Ortiz, alongside accolades from Stereogum, Exclaim, So Young, NPR, NYLON, BrooklynVegan, Gorilla vs Bear, Paste, NME, and Bandcamp, who called the LP "the sound of classic indie rock as delivered by a promising new voice." The album's release propelled the band into a year of touring which saw them going on long runs in the US with bands like Polyvinyl signees Good Morning, and like-mined Fire Talk label mates Wombo & Mamalarky, before returning to release their WOAH EP a little less than a year after the release of their first album in July of this year.
Today, PACKS are back with a final 2021 release, a new single called "Abalone".
WATCH:
the "Abalone" video on YouTube
Accompanied by a video that collects candid footage from their 2021 tours, the track re-introduces PACKS as a full band following the stripped down WOAH EP, and showcases an engaging and exploratory melody from Link that she unwinds over the band's mesmeric, psych-adjacent groove.