Friday 08 April 2011
Heaven’s gonna happen now
“Retro in all the right places” is how I once described The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and that’s a sentiment I’ve seen expressed in one form or another in all the reviews and write-ups I’ve read about their new album, Belong. It’s hard not to approach any new recording by TPOBPAH without carrying forward some residual sonic memory. Their debut LP was an unapologetic love letter to their fuzzy indie-pop guitar heroes. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart was pitch-perfect record brimming with youthful vigor. It sounded exciting and new and familiar and comfortable, often all within the same verse.
You’ll still swear that you’ve heard the likes of “Heart in Your Heartbreak” somewhere and sometime before, but you’d be hard-pressed to say that Belong is the sound of a band resting on their laurels. Producers Flood and Alan Moulder have polished their jagged-edged indie rock to a shiny, smooth stone, with all the heft and weight of a shot put. Yeah, sure, the title track sounds like it could have sat comfortably on the b-side of a Smashing Pumpkins single circa Siamese Dream, but is that such a bad thing? I for one applaud the balls with which The Pains of Being Pure at Heart attack these songs from the inside-out, maintaining all the hallmarks of their first record while pushing and challenging themselves to take it to the next level.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Belong by Slumberland Records
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This entry was posted on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Austra
