View Larger
Rate it!
Avg: 4.0 (773 ratings)
- Date Released: February 3, 2009
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Indie Rock, Brit Pop
- Label: Slumberland / IODA
A effervescent pop debut celebrating the exuberance of youth in all its John Hughes glory
-
We Say...
It's no insult, and not much hyperbole, to call The Pains of Being Pure at Heart the first debut in years that takes an uncomplicated stance on being young. Youth feels great, and more than that, it matters. Totaling less than 35 minutes, the album's ten tracks float by with the same butterfly anticipation that fills the last day of school before summer break. These are tight, classic pop songs, their craftsmanship less a product of music-geek encyclopedism than a basic this-sounds-right instinct. The opening bars of "Young Adult Friction" recalls "Love Vigilantes," that terrifically atypical New Order track from 1985's Low-Life; lyrically and musically, "Come Saturday" suggests an improbable double-time mash-up of two Cure staples: "I can't stand to see your picture / On the dresser where I left you / You're 80 miles away, Tuesday / But come Saturday, you'll come to stay." (ie: "Pictures of You" and "Friday I'm in Love.") Incandescent and twinkling, "A Teenager in Love" is the John Hughes/Gossip Girl sound of coming-of-age America, even if what the chorus actually says is, "But you don't need a friend when you're / A teenager in love with Christ and heroin." That "Heroin" sounds like "heaven" in that last line is a result of The Pains' most obvious aesthetic distinction: a fuzzed-out, reverb-heavy sound that swaddles the vocals in a velveteen blanket of noise. Pop this dedicated to youthful exuberance must be delivered in the native tongue: a dazed mumble.
What's most refreshing about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is its refusal to speak as metaphor or microcosm for something grander, more adult. The line "Strange teenager, waiting for death at 19," is about exactly that: one strange teenager, not Mortality, or Anomie, or, for that matter, Global Warming or the War in Iraq. That The Pains so gleefully find adolescence beautiful and fraught in itself doesn't mean their LP's all prom dates and locker-bound addictions; even the grad-school crowd can't help chasing the painful purity of "Young Adult Friction": "Between the stacks in the library / Not like anyone stopped to see / We came, they went, our bodies spent / Among the dust and microfiche." So discover the young at decade's end: We are the ones we have been waiting for. -
They Say...
The New York indie pop quartet the Pains of Being Pure at Heart built up a pretty rabid fan base in the indie pop community prior to the release of their self-titled debut record in early 2009. For this, they could thank a string of excellent singles and EPs that began in 2007 (songs from which appear on the album) but more than that they can put it down to the fact that their sound melds together the trademarked sounds of many beloved indie and noise pop bands into one shiny ball of sound and melancholy. Mixed in skillfully are the sonic assaults of early My Bloody Valentine, the hazy sweetness of Ride, the introspective and usually morose lyrical approach perfected by the Field Mice, the sensitive and tender vocals purveyed by most Sarah records bands, and the rhythmic drive of early-'90s Amer-Indie bands the likes of which more often than not found themselves on Slumberland (Lilys, the Ropers, Velocity Girl -- whose Archie Moore ably mixes the album). It all could come off like a pastiche with little more than nostalgic value but the band acts as if it were the first time anyone ever captured this kind of sound, never sitting back and aping the past but instead giving it a healthy boost. Plus, they write some very good songs. "Come Saturday," "This Love Is Fucking Right!" (their answer to the Field Mice's "This Love Is Not Wrong"), or "Young Adult Friction" all would have been in serious rotation on a hip college radio station in 1992. Best of all is the amazingly hooky "Everything with You," which stands as the equal of anything the shoegaze poppers or pop losers cranked out back in the day. If you had gone out and bought the 7," after one play you would have tacked the sleeve up on your wall and played the record until the grooves wore out. It's that good. It lifts the album from pretty good to almost great. A little more variation from song to song, a little more of their own sound, or another song or two as compelling as the best stuff here and the POBPAH's debut would have been classic. Settling for impressive is fair enough and good enough for fans of loud, fuzzy, and heartfelt indie noise pop.
“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”
Rolling Stone
eMusic Tip
Paid downloads are counted towards an album discount but free downloads are not.
COMPLETE FOR FREE!
You can download the rest of the tracks from this album for free! Just click the Complete Album button.
We’re sorry this album can only be downloaded using paid subscription download credits.
We recommend you Save it for Later by clicking the Save for Later button shown just above this message. For a list of related albums you can download right now, check out these recommendations.
We'll give you 10 additional free credits to download this album and start your paid subscription.
Get 10 bonus credits on us if you download this album. Sweet!
| 01. |  |
Contender |
2:40 |
|
| 02. | |
Come Saturday |
3:17 |
|
| 03. | |
Young Adult Friction |
4:07 |
|
| 04. | |
This Love Is Fucking Right! |
3:15 |
|
| 05. | |
The Tenure Itch |
3:45 |
|
| 06. | |
Stay Alive |
4:56 |
|
| 07. | |
Everything With You |
2:59 |
|
| 08. | |
A Teenager In Love |
3:24 |
|
| 09. | |
Hey Paul |
2:03 |
|
| 10. | |
Gentle Sons |
4:32 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 34:58 Total Length
Loading...
Playlists If you like this artist, check out these member playlists
Explore music recommended by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart fans
Credits
- Archie Moore - Mixing
Choose from over 7 million
music downloadseMusic features legendary and emerging artists in every genre: classic rock to classical,indie to international, soundtracks to spiritual, jazz to country and many more.
MP3 downloads work on any digital media player
With eMusic, you OWN your music without any restrictions. Burn music to a CD, play it on your computer, mobile phone or any digital media player - including iPod®, Zune® and Walkman®.
Songs available for 50¢ or less
eMusic subscriptions start at just $11.99 a month for 24 downloads - that's just 50¢ per song! And it gets better from there - our plans go as low as 42¢ per song!
Music Discovery
eMusic is about discovery. We make finding new music fun again with music recommendations from our award-winning team of music experts, member playlists and new music features.
Cancel anytime
With all the great music and site features we're pretty sure you will love eMusic. If not, no problem. You can cancel at any time and keep the music you have downloaded.
© 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC