Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The
Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The
When a band lists only their first names in the liner notes of an album, it can only mean two thoroughly disdainful things. One: they’re too cool for rock stardom, or at least, they think it’s fashionable to give the impression that they’re above it all. Two: they’ll be needing that anonymity after wasting their listeners’ time and money by subjecting them to a LP’s worth of garbage. Combined with one of the most pretentious band names in recent history and instantly blasphemous comparisons to early My Blood Valentine, this ‘creative decision’ did not exactly make me look forward to listening to the eponymous debut album of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Thankfully though, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is a fine, fully enjoyable exception to the rule. The shimmering dream pop of the band’s debut is surprisingly accomplished and self-assured, a rare shoegaze-styled album that isn’t hellbent on aping the genre’s luminaries. The record can certainly fit within a category with other releases that unsuccessfully try to recreate the magic from that bygone era, but it doesn’t suffer from the anxieties of attempting to fill a void that clearly does not need to be filled. These songs sound organically conceived, free of the intention of imitating something that died with the early 90’s. Overdriven guitars, simultaneously warm and spiky, and spastic, punk-inspired drumming dominate the sonic palette of the Pains’ sound, but they sound much more motivated by the prospect of writing great pop songs than of being hailed as shoegaze revivalists. ‘Everything With You’ captures the starry-eyed naivety and utter bleakness that comes with young adulthood, while ‘A Teenager in Love’ sounds like what the Strokes’ ‘Someday’ would have sounded like if Morrissey had remixed it. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have crafted a debut album that is better than any word of mouth that it could receive, since practically any description of their music would just force potential listeners to jump to conclusions and run for the hills. You’re just going to have to listen for yourself. Oh, and they actually do sort of sound like early My Bloody Valentine.
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