Reviews : The Pains of Being Pure at Heart : Belong

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart      

Belong

[Slumberland; 2011] 

 8.1/10 ___________________________________________________________________________________

In 2009, the Brooklyn heartthrobs The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released their self-titled debut album, reviving the melancholic noise-pop of the late eighties. Amidst the innumerable bands that attempted to romanticize the era, few others were quite a successful as the indie-pop quartet, suggesting that the band appeals to more than just music bloggers and adolescent hipsters. Recently, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart delivered their sophomore effort Belong, a manifestation of those promising speculations suggested by their first album.  

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is a record that undeniably tried to emulate the pop aesthetics of 80s bands like The Smiths and The Jesus and Mary Chain. A nostalgic album recorded with generous amounts of reverb, the debut seemed to have a homespun sensibility, which is why it was surprising when the band announced that they were recording their sophomore LP with heavy-weight producers like Flood and Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins). On Belong, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart bulk up the bedroom sounds on their first album to create a more refined piece of work that nods to the Pumpkins circa 1994.

Belong opens with the title track, and almost immediately, one cannot help but assume that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan must either adore or completely despise these guys. On “Belong”, lead vocalist Kip Berman conveys the same theme of solitude he explored on their first album, but here, the words are sung over squelching guitars: “I know it is wrong, but we just don’t belong/In their eyes, in the sun, no we just don’t belong.” The band also revisits their coming of age motif and the “pains” associated with adolescence on “The Body”, where Berman sings, “Tell me again what the body’s for/Cause I can’t feel it anymore/I want to hurt like it did before/We shouldn’t sin.”

Ultimately, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have not created an album about maturation, nor have they deserted the innocence of their previous work; they have simply produced a record that builds upon their first effort and displays the New York four-piece’s more developed sense of songwriting. In a recent interview with the online music publication Pitchfork Media, Berman discussed their new sound. “We wanted the songs to exist in an immediate and instinctual place. The album sounds like we're taking away what we were hiding behind before.” And, while Belong feels somewhat distant from their previous work, it is also incredibly homogenous. This record will certainly appeal to the kids that fell in love with the band two years ago, and, thanks to big-budget producers Flood and Alan Moulder, the album is sure to appeal to a much larger audience as well.