Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Artist: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Title: Belong
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Slumberland
Genre: Dream- /indie- /twee pop
Rating: 92 / 100

Yesterday, I wrote something about The Dø being a really nice soundtrack to those first wintry days of the carefully appearing spring. Well, Belong is already with ease my favourite soundtrack to those lovely sunny days in early May, sitting in the grass on the campus or playing volleyball on the beach of that lake nearby on friday evening. Two years ago The Pains of Being Pure at Heart astonished many people by releasing their beautiful self-titled debut album, introducing those aforementioned people to their lovely sugar sweet style of shoegaze, with their airy male/female vocal melodies on top and the noisy fuzzy tones of their Fenders underneath. Belong is nothing more than the sequel to their debut album, building further on the basis they laid down two years ago.

When I first saw the announcement of this new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album I was really afraid of a big deception. Their previous album was just so much near perfection it would be pretty much impossible to reach that level or even top it. To be fair they didn't really top it, but they came as close as possible. This album is again full of really catchy, sunny music, with a slight melancholic touch. Comparing The Pains if Being Pure at Heart to sugar would maybe be possible while reviewing their previous record, in this case one will have to look for even sweeter options, maybe aspartame will come close. One of the reasons for this increasing sweetness is probably the way fuzz and distortion are used on these tracks, their self-titled debut was pretty noisy at times (which is something I love, don't get me wrong), while Belong is mostly played with clean guitars, and only occasionally features those layers of fuzz one might be used to after hearing their debut.

Something that really grabbed my attention were the vocal melodies on The Body, for some parts sounded exactly like the vocal melodies on Atmosphere by Joy Division, making me wonder whether they were actually inspired by Ian Curtis' ensemble during the writing process. Also the opening melody of My Terrible Friend reminds me very much of one of the melodies of Ceremony, also originally by Joy Division, those last two tones are even exactly the last two words of Love Will Tear Us Apart. I have been in love with Joy Division for almost 4 years now, and really like to hear something of their inheritance back in todays music. Maybe it is just pure coincidence, I don't know, maybe my ears are deceiving me, I don't really care, this is wonderful, and so are the songs I mentioned.

Two years ago they gained quite a lot of attention, this time I am pretty sure they will cause a tiny explosion in Music Land. And if this explosions will ever take place, it's a well-earned one for sure. For now I can't imagine anyone else besides The Pains of Being Pure at Heart deserving it.

Spread the love,

Selwin.