LP - Limited Edition Black with Silver Splatter vinyl. Includes 12” x 12” printed insert and download code in a standard jacket with silver lamination. In almost every respect, the alexalone that made their poignant Polyvinyl debut, 2021’s ALEXALONEWORLD, is an altogether different band than the one that made their staggering follow-up, the new ALEXALONE TECHNICAL RESEARCH. During that deep pandemic daze, Alex Peterson recorded much of that first record themselves, accreting bass and guitar takes in homespun overdub sessions and collecting parts from friends. Those eight songs shaped a discursive ’90s journey, with Peterson moving among touchstones like Yo La Tengo, Hum, and Low, clutching those influences tightly as if to remain afloat amid a high tide of despair.But by the time Peterson began writing TECHNICAL RESEARCH, alexalone seemed to be a stable quintet, a two- and sometimes three-guitar powerhouse with a clearer—and, frankly, more compelling—vision. Surrounded now by the collaborators who had contributed to that debut, Peterson let darkness and heaviness flood the tunes, the guitar tessellations and dynamo drums suddenly invoking Slint, Sonic Youth, and Boris in epics that may last for 13 minutes. They offset that formidable sound, though, not only with a melodic sweetness but also with a lyrical tenderness, Peterson trying to deal with this damaging world rather than simply succumb to it. Imagine looking skyward on a cloudy night and spotting just enough stars to know they’re still there: That is ALEXALONE TECHNICAL RESEARCH, a five-track album that trumpets the arrival of a mighty but vulnerable new rock band.For a year or so, this new iteration of alexalone—Peterson, Sam Jordan, Drewsky Hulett, Mari Maurice, and Hannah Read—doubled as a kind of cousin act to Read’s Lomelda, sharing members and tours. Just as they finished arranging these new songs for the stage, however, a joint tour was scuttled. Read needed a break from the road, so that well-rehearse