The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart -‘The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’ (Fortuna Pop!)
So…it here it comes, one of the anticipated releases on the indie underground. After an EP and a handful of singles over the course of more than a year, the debut LP from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, How does it measure up?
The first thing to say is that this album is a wonderful mix of contrasts that, somehow, come together rather wonderfully. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s part of an ‘alternative’ pop trajectory that begins with the Velvet Underground’s first album and continues through seminal debuts by The Pastels, The Wedding Present and the Jesus and Mary Chain, on through Nirvana and then Belle and Sebastian. Yet it also sounds as fresh as a daisy, as oppposed to tired ‘heard it all before riffs and beats.’ And if you thought after last single ‘Everything With You’ that it was My Bloody Valentine guitars all the way, then ‘A Teenager in Love’ has echoes of eighties synthpop, and as we all know by now, there ain’t no sound more 2009 than 1982.
The band hail from New York City but this is an album that feels like it’s spiritual home is Glasgow. Does this not compute at all? Well, there are few albums that evoke New York more than Lou Reed’s Transformer and that was recorded in London. It just sums it all up the contrasts…yet what cannot be disputed is that this is an album that you cannot fail to fall in love with. There’s guitar fuzz, drums that echo Bobby Gillespie and Mo Tucker and vocals that remind you of summer days and feeling like anything is possible.
Finally, it remains inevitable that it will be loved across the blogosphere, the hip record shops and the indier-than-thou fanzines – but wouldn’t it be great if it became the commercial breakthorugh that it deserves to be.
****1/2
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will be released on February 3 through Fortuna Pop.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Website/The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart myspace
The Pains Of being Pure At Heart -‘Everything With You.’