The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Seeing as I don't seem to use this much anymore (I never seem to have anything decent to write about these days... my life appears to be in a slump) I've decided to use it as a platform for writing music reviews. This is inspired quite a lot by my good friend Iddy starting up one of these recently for that purpose alone. That blog can be found here and it is really rather good (her taste is quite a brilliant one indeed). She is intending to review every release worth writing about in 2010, as it comes out. I'm not that ambitious, so I'm just going to review stuff I want to review, when I want to review it (no matter when it came out). I will end up reviewing some of the new stuff for this year, but also expect a lot of reviews of old albums (I'm more of an old music person anyway). I'll start with one that I missed on my 'music of 2009' blog post. I only heard it for the first time a week or so ago, but if I'd paid attention when it came out I reckon it'd be on my favourite album list for 2009. It is the debut by New Yorkers The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
When I first put this on merely days ago, the immediate warmth of opener Contender reminded me of something I couldn't quite place. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but the implacable memory it evoked was strong on an emotional level. This feeling continues throughout all the songs on the album, the echoey drums and clangy guitars reminding the listener of a better time. It's a difficult feeling to put into words, the unrestrained glee and innocence emanating from the songs almost taking the listener back to childhood. It sounds a bit silly, but listening to this album kind of makes me feel safe and above all, gloriously happy. If Merriweather Post Pavilion is a happy album (the Animal Collective one I wrote about a while ago) then The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is euphoric. Not the stupid kind of euphoria used to describe night clubs, either. The floating above the clouds kind of euphoria is the one on offer here.

Maybe the opening guitar sequence of Contender simply reminded me of when I last felt a bit like that; when I was a kid. Or maybe it just reminded me of the post-punk days of the 80s. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart don't sound like a modern band, with their slightly punkish songs and romantic lyrics (coupled with a dreamy production) you'd be forgiven for thinking that they are from that time. I struggled at first to think what other band I could compare them to (my music knowledge from that era still has massive gaps, I'm afraid) but I've now read that they're been compared with Joy Division which I can't say I disagree with, only they're a much much happier version.

Despite the simplicity and dreaminess of their songs, there are some very good tunes here. Songs like Come Saturday and Young Adult Friction show that they are a band with considerable talent and may well become pretty popular in the future. They deserve to be, that much is for sure.

Rating: 8/10
Released: 3rd February 2009