THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - S/T

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are 4 folks (3 guys and a lady) from the Brooklyn area who play and write songs with a terrible name. Other than that, I can find no reason that they should be listened to on a regular basis.



Well, let me back up.



As lots of people know, in the early 1990’s with that “shoegaze” movement, there was an influx of really great bands. Two that come to mind right away are Ride and My Bloody Valentine. While My Bloody Valentine became known for the landmark “Loveless”, their earlier singles (anything pre-1988 or so) were pretty much nothing more than jangly guitar pop songs. But the songs were good and while it wasn’t a “new” sound, they were doing it well and it paved the way for them to make such fantastic albums as “Isn’t Anything” and the aforementioned “Loveless”. However, I have a strong feeling that the Pains of Being Pure at Heart will never create an album that has any amount of impact greater than getting a “Best New Music” from Pitchfork.



The songs here all sound just way too similar. Never before have 34 minutes felt so repetitive. And this isn’t good repetition that you can find on any album by the Fall, Faust, or Can. Instead, it sounds like they wrote a few songs and just rearranged them adding some new lyrics or a sparkly new keyboard line. Most pop music can be sweet, maybe even sweet enough to get a cavity from. This makes me sick to my stomach. Everything sounds like their main goal was to be playing 25 minute sets at outdoor music festivals where all they have to do is get up and rock out, say “Thank you (insert generic city name)!!!” and walk off the stage as a group of 20-somethings with messenger bags and rolled up jeans proceed to discuss the upcoming Pavement reunion and grabbing a bite to eat at the local vegan friendly diner after.



It’s a shame too, because the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have potential to be a good band. The cool sounding production (loud drums, slightly buried vocals, and emphasis on the guitars, all of which were definitely lifted from Ride’s “Nowhere”, or at least the early Creation Records LPs) is a nice touch and the melodies aren’t bad either. But, it all comes off as being way too derivative of, well, pretty much every album that came out like this almost 20 years ago.



Even the album artwork, which has been used on maybe 3 or 4 of their releases with color variations looks like it could’ve been used for either those early My Bloody Valentine singles (look up “You Made Me Realise” for reference) or any of the countless Belle & Sebastian LPs since their first one. The Belle & Sebastian nods are also given in the song titles, which include titles such as “Young Adult Fiction”, “A Teenager in Love” and “Gentle Sons”..



However, some songs are just terrible. These include “The Tenure Itch” and “Everything With You”, which also tend to sound less like their shoegaze influences and more like boring and uninspired 4 chord 3 minute romps through the land of 2 note keyboard lines and vocals.



The late Jay Reatard was talking about bands from Brooklyn and he made some comment about the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, saying “…oh it must hurt being so bland”. I have to say he’s right. Longtime friend and colleague Garret Kriston and I were discussing this and agreed that why should anyone listen to this if you can just listen to the real thing?



Maybe it’s also due to the album format. I’d be tempted to buy a single by these folks. Because sometimes, you do need something to put on for 3 minutes that is just some pleasant sounding music that doesn’t require an IQ larger than your shoe size to understand. But the ideas and execution suffer from trying to create an album full of songs that all sound like they were made to open and close their live show. One or two songs in, I was doing some toe tapping. 4 songs in, I couldn’t wait for the album to stop. I might be raving about them if I was only reviewing a single, saying words like “fresh and exciting”, but even Guided by Voices and Rocket from the Crypt knew that you had to go outside of that realm every now and then. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are probably fine for your summer nights, but just to listen to? I wouldn’t be so sure…



OVERALL RATING - Bland, generic and mediocre – just like McDonald’s, or at least the new Vampire Weekend LP which shouldn’t be listened to by anybody.

KEY TRACKS – “Stay Alive”, “Gentle Sons”, “Come Saturday”