Local indie duo Pet Moth is following up the release of their recent single “Dreamtime” with their first full studio album, Tiny Wishes. The album expands on the ambient dream-pop hinted at on the brief single, which also serves as the album’s opener. Tiny Wishes is a warm and patient invitation into a wistful world, as well as a candid release for its two performers.

Pet Moth was founded by Joshua Elbaum and Will Lynch, two friends who met while studying music in school. While they never played together there, they reconnected in the winter of 2016 when they were both looking in need of a new direction. A few months later, the EP The World As It Was was hatched. Taking inspiration from Joanna Newsom, Akron/Family and “Fleetwood Mac witchcraft conspiracies,” the EP was more structured than Tiny Wishes but hinted strongly at the bedroom-pop sound to come.

Although the album’s two opening tracks both barely eclipse two minutes, Tiny Wishes has a very relaxed feeling to it, especially as the songs stretch out later on. Songs like “Dreamtime,” “Tooth” and “Brake to Reverse” all show a precise and learned devotion to the mood, choosing not to involve themselves in any traditional structure and disregarding any sort of huge moments. Roughly half of the album’s ten songs do not build to any sort of emotional climax, letting the atmospheric tone serve as the entertainment.

The songs that have a confident lack of structure highlight a veteran patience from Pet Moth, and they only bolster the songs that do build to a larger payoff. The album’s third song, “Landscaping Season,” is the first one with more of a focus on the music and structure rather than the tone, and it perfectly complements the two openers. The use of a tantric crescendo is best deployed on the title track “Tiny Wishes,” a longer offering with a very chill vibe that slowly builds up into a grander climax. The duo is at their loudest – on a relative scale – on the penultimate song “Half Alone,” a song just shy of six minutes that features some carefully-controlled chaos right at the midpoint before slipping away into some of the most somber music on the whole album.

The album always feels like a full band project, in that there are only a few times where one instrument is heavily favored over others. The vocals at the end of “Need You In My Life” and the groovy guitar rhythm of “Love Like That” feel especially important because of this distinction. These small moments help to break up the pace and keep the listener on their toes. Otherwise, Tiny Wishes is more than happy to have one merged sound, with everyone contributing to one unified atmosphere. Elbaum and Lynch are joined on the album by Sam Franklin (Birchfire) on guitar and Collin Dennen (Ellen Siberian Tiger) on bass, and as a quartet they gel wonderfully.

Tiny Wishes is a very cathartic moment for Pet Moth, and this catharsis is palpable. While nearly everything about the album feels methodically relaxed, there is still a sense of urgency behind it, as if the band needs the album for their own emotional release. Still, for the listener, Tiny Wishes is a rewarding listen, one that serves equally as background chore music as well as an immersive experience with eyes closed and headphones on. Tiny Wishes is available now, via their Bandcamp page, as well as on major streaming sites (and TikTok!) Listen below.