Baltimore's Should presents the digital single Down a Notch in advance of their impending fourth album, The Great Pretend.

The single leads off with album track "Down a Notch" — at once the most effortless pop song in Should's catalog, but also elegantly crafted with guitars anticipating, doubling, and darting between the vocal melodies.

The two non-album B-sides find Should testing new waters. "On Your Sleeve's" stripped-back verses underscore vocalist/songwriter Marc Ostermeier’s fragile pseudo-croon in anticipation of the more familiar lush dream pop atmospherics that swell at the choruses. The instrumental closer "Animate" locks into a heavy, hypnotic krautrock groove and never relents.

The single hints to the breadth of new directions the band confidently explores on The Great Pretend, due out in March.

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