With their 2021 debut, Bummer, Cobourg, Ontario’s cleopatrick earned their place in the fraternal order of alt-rock power duos alongside more seasoned peers like Death from Above 1979 and Royal Blood. But after showing how much noise they can make as a two-piece, singer/guitarist Luke Gruntz and drummer Ian Fraser want to foreground the melodic grace and emotional depth that sometimes got overshadowed by their earthquaking, fuzz-covered grooves. On FAKE MOON, they don’t so much resemble a downsized Soundgarden as a two-headed Sparklehorse, trading festival-sized riffage for lo-fi ambience, radio-ready polish for static-scuffed experimentation, and heavy-duty hooks for sundazed serenades. But FAKE MOON sees cleopatrick effortlessly slip into bedroom-indie mode as if they were throwing on a cozy old cardigan: Tracks like the acoustic-driven daydream “CHEW” and the sweetly psychedelic “LOVE YOU” feel less like radical breaks from cleopatrick’s past than revelations of their most authentic selves. And as grunge-folk standouts like “BAD GUY” and “HAMMER” attest, even when cleopatrick are playing softly, they still hit hard.