Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The
The Echo Of Pleasure
£15
| Release: | Released October 13th 2017 |
| Product: | 12" LP |
| Cat: | PNBW003 (PAINBOW) |
Info
Inconceivably already a decade old, sickly twee-masters The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are releasing album number four The Echo Of Pleasure. While the teeny elements of Pains' sound will doubtless remain there is something of a coming of age feel to lead singles 'Anymore' and 'My Only', which sounds about right given that frontman Kip Berman is now married and with child. If we're honest, that evolution is very welcome - there's not much fun in sickly adolescent feelings once you're well into your 30's.
There is, in fact, a fabulous influence of Echo & The Bunnymen that runs through Pains' new work (the 'Echo' in the title being just a coincidence I'm sure) but as a maturing indie band there is not many a higher aspiration than that.
Tracklist
1. My Only
2. Anymore
3. The Garret
4. When I Dance With You
5. The Echo Of Pleasure
6. Falling Apart So Slow
7. So True
8. The Cure For Death
9. Stay
Audio
Press
(The words of the press release, not us)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have long set the benchmark for bighearted, idealistic pop songs. With The Echo of Pleasure, The Pains push beyond their many inspirations and embrace their role as indiepop heroes in their own right.
Showcasing the deft songwriting of frontman Kip Berman, The Pains’ fourth album is their most confident and accomplished. After three critically acclaimed records, 2009’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 2011’s Belong and 2014’s Days of Abandon received praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The Guardian and Rolling Stone, they have put together a collection of songs that possess a timeless grandeur, deeper and more satisfying than anything the band has done since their iconic debut.
The record is augmented by guest vocals featuring previous Pains collaborators: Jen Goma on “So True” (A Sunny Day in Glasgow), bass guitar by Jacob Danish Sloan (Dream Diary), and horns by Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne, St. Vincent). The Pains of Being Pure at Heart live band consists of long-ti me guitarist Christoph Hochheim (Ablebody, ex-Depreciati on Guild), bassist Jacob Danish Sloan, drummer Chris Schackerman (ex-Mercury Girls, ex-Literature) and vocalist/keyboardist Jess Rojas.