| Sunshine and Balance Beams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 15, 2025 | |||
| Studio | Machines with Magnets (Pawtucket) [1] | |||
| Genre | Rock [2] | |||
| Length | 42:03 | |||
| Label | Sooper | |||
| Pile chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Sunshine and Balance Beams | ||||
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Sunshine and Balance Beams is the ninth studio album by American indie rock band Pile. [3] It was released on August 15, 2025, via Sooper Records in LP, CD, cassette and digital formats. [4]
The first album by the band released through Sooper, Sunshine and Balance Beams was preceded by its 2023 project, All Fiction. [5] It consists of ten tracks ranging between two and five minutes each, excluding "Balance Beams", which has a length of under one minute, and "Meanwhile Outside", which features approximately eight minutes of runtime.
"Born at Night" was released as the first single on May 13, 2025, alongside a music video directed by Josh Echevarria. [5] [6] It was followed by "Uneasy" and "Bouncing in Blue", the second and third singles, on June 10 and July 15, 2025, together with music videos directed by Stefan Fernandez. [4] [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| New Noise |    [2] |
| Pitchfork | 7.9/10 [8] |
Margaret Farrell of Stereogum described Sunshine and Balance Beams as "a Sisyphean concept album" that is "lyrically built around plunging us into a dense forest with the hope we'll reach relief and replenishing light after we make it out" and "isn't easy listening, but that's what makes rewards feel so earned." [9]
The album received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork , whose reviewer Zach Schonfeld referred to it as "undoubtedly a Pile album" and "how well it traverses both paths, restoring the pummeling post-hardcore roar that fans have missed while integrating it with swooning strings and pockets of tenderness" as "impressive, even a bit confounding." [8]
New Noise assigned the album a 3.5-star rating and described it as feeling "like a point of revisitation which nonetheless proceeds on a new path rather than merely retracing old footprints" and resonating "as a work deeply rooted in Pile's collective legacy, with the potential to serve as an artistic address to longtime supporters and new fans alike." [2]
BrooklynVegan referred to the album as "just Pile staying true to what they've always believed in most, and continuing their ever-gradual evolution in the process," commenting that it "has nothing to do with the increased interest in '90s nostalgia." [10]
All tracks are written by Richard Maguire.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Balance Beams" | 0:58 |
| 2. | "An Opening" | 3:09 |
| 3. | "Deep Clay" | 4:13 |
| 4. | "A Loosened Knot" | 5:19 |
| 5. | "Bouncing in Blue" | 5:37 |
| 6. | "Uneasy" | 2:35 |
| 7. | "Holds" | 4:15 |
| 8. | "Born at Night" | 5:29 |
| 9. | "Meanwhile Outside" | 8:18 |
| 10. | "Carrion Song" | 3:10 |
| Total length: | 42:03 | |
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [1]
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