There is something quietly disarming about "history," the first single from pets, the new project of Jonathan Campolo and Nick Campolo of P.E. and Pill. "Spiral Question Mark," their forthcoming record. You also hear an invitation into a world where intimacy grapples with atmosphere, and every note seems to have been pinched from a late-night walk under streetlights and drizzle.
"history" is not a big, chest-thumping anthem. Instead, it lingers as a meditation shaped like a ballad, holding itself back instrumentally, with an emotional undercurrent that feels both fragile and indestructible. It doesn't shout, it breathes. The Campolos create a soundscape that is as much space as melody, and the song smolders along at a pace, the kind of burn that doesn't demand your attention so much as it earns it.
If "Spiral Question Mark" is, as the pets call it, a breakdown more than a breaking up, then "history" is its prologue, an initial gaze at this spiral where openness leads and light pokes tentatively from the recesses of the dark. The song sounds both finished and undone, a paradox that encapsulates the song's appeal.
What pets are making here is not just music but atmosphere and intimacy that gives you the sense you've happened upon a secret, and it's worth hanging onto. With "history," the duo is cracking a door open further, taking us with them as they descend into their psychic spiral. As it closes again at the end of the song, we're left gazing through the opening into darkness, gawking and maybe even a little spooked about what must be in there.
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