At times, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart’s self-titled debut threatens to amount to substantially less than its influences: Ride, Felt, Smiths, C-86, their Slumberland predecessors. Yet a supererogative ear and superior taste excuse the worst execesses of cherry-pick pastiche. Ignore the nettling nomenclature and chances are you’ll agree with Dusted and The Voice’s recent raves. Even if the inspiration might be alloyed, the product rings pure. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart don’t do anything new, but they do everything right.
Download:
MP3: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart-”Everything With You”
1 comment
douglas martin says:
February 5, 2009 at 4:55 pm (UTC -7)
wholehearted co-sign. it’s been a long, long time since a band could be favorably compared to the smiths. i think that they come even closer than belle & sebastian, though the latter has ostensibly written better songs.