Much of PACKS new LP was recorded between Mexico City and Xalapa, where the band spent time last March working at a house known as Casa pulpo, an architectural feat removed from the bustle of city life, owned and operated by Wendy Moira, the visionary behind Teatro Lucido, a prominent theater and music venue in Mexico City. ‘Missy’ is told from the point-of-view of a cat who hung around the practice space in Xalapa, meowling at the neighborhood tomcat in desperation.

“She was trying not to look at us, but we could see right through her,” Link says. The yearning in Link’s voice (“Did I get those fleas to bite you?”) is later accompanied by Lupita Rico, who contributes a spoken word verse in Spanish.

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‘Paige Machine’ opens with the hiss of rain from an epic thunderstorm that happened in the forests of Veracruz, where PACKS tracked the record. The most laidback track released from the record so far, the song is centered around a langorous slide guitar hook, and was inspired by Mark Twain, using a device he championed as a metaphor for life, wherein our stubborn, progress-hungry attempts to improve what is already working can lead to obsessive tinkering and endless re-dos.

Says Link: “Twain invested in a printing device called the Paige Compositor, spent his life’s savings on it, and it worked almost perfectly. It would have been revolutionary, but then the inventor, Paige, took it apart to tweak something, make the machine work even better, and it never worked again. They say that this failure led to Mark Twain’s decline.”

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That promise has been realized far sooner than even the most optimistic PACKS fan could have hoped, as now they are announcing their third LP Melt The Honey (due out January 19 on Fire Talk), and sharing the album’s not-quite-title-track ‘Honey,’ with its accompanying video.

Part of the vibrancy of the recording comes from an underlying emotional shift in Link’s life: falling in love. The album’s title draws from the lead single ‘Honey,’ written in a Chilean beach town where Link briefly lived ensconced in these feelings, sharing a home with her romantic partner and allowing herself to experience life in an easier way, through the lens of having someone by her side.

“I wrote this song while I was living in a tiny beach town in Chile, nestled between two hills,” Link explains. “They don’t have maple syrup down there so we’d have honey instead. To keep the honey from burning you have to melt it a special way! As this developed into a habit, I think I was struck by how cute it was.”

Melt the Honey:

1. 89 Days
2. Honey
3. Pearly Whites
4. HFCS
5. AmyW
6. Take Care
7. Her Garden
8. Paige Machine
9. Missy
10. Trippin
11. Time Loop

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