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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
it's 1986 again, 13 Feb 2009
This review is from: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Audio CD)
Listening to this rolls back the years, its almost as though i could still fit the paisley pattern shirt, and that my fringe still flopped over my face. What a joy to feel so young again, all through half an hour of indie pop.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart make no attempt to disguise their influences, Sarah bands, early MBV, C86 acts, but their modern interpretation of that scene and sound is pleasantly refreshing.
The first half of the album is pure fuzzy indie pop, opening track Contender and Come Saturday both captivating the listener immediately. The second half of the album shows more variety, and greater pop sensibility, before finishing with the epic and Mary Chain-esque Gentle Sons.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will not change your life but if you are a teenage indie pop kid, or a Peter Pan 40 year old striving to recall younger days, this album will entertain you and leave you in better spirits than when you put it on. An excellent debut album, more Leamington Spa than New York, and thats a compliment by the way.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Painless, Heartfelt Pop, 20 Feb 2009
This review is from: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Audio CD)
Pains (as I'll call them from now on) love nostalgia. So much so that they appear not to have heard a record made after 1995, except perhaps for relistening to the re-released Shop Assistants album, Will Anything Happen, originally from 1986. Such is their devotion to that year that one of the Shop Assistants, who featured on the NME's influential C86 cassette, went onto form The Pastels, with whom comparison can surely be made.
The fuzzy indie-pop on offer nestles comfortably with latter day artists Crystal Stilts and Manhattan Love Suicides in nostalgia, having absorbed the sort of jangly, smily, inoffensive indie qualities of, say, Belle & Sebastian on the way. `Contender' buzzes along like a missing Lost In Translation soundtrack number, all gentle fuzz and simple acoustic jangle. Early My Bloody Valentine and Jesus & Mary Chain influences reverb happily throughout.
`Young Adult Friction' and `Gentle Sons' would play unnoticed between Stone Roses and Smiths records at any indie night club, unobtrusive in an entirely great way, the driving drums in the latter monumentally borrowed from the former of these artists. The drawback to this record is that it not only sounds like 1986 all over again, it also sounds a bit like the early 90s, the bits that didn't sound like Nirvana, and did sound a bit like the beginnings of Britpop. Hence, `Come Saturday' sounds a little too close to the Lightening Seeds, `Stay Alive' a little closer to James.
That said, this should not put the listener off, as, despite Pains' unfortunate A-Level, poetry-club moniker and at-times-questionable sound, this harmless but effective pop record will warm the purest of hearts.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb, 2 Jan 2010
This review is from: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Audio CD)
I bought this CD after seeing them live speculatively at Bristol's Thekla venue. They were fantastic live, the atmosphere was great and I purchased this straight after.
If you like the C86 indie sound, this album is pretty much perfect. Crank it up loud! There is not a bad track on the album and after 2 or 3 listens it just gets better and better. I cannot recommend it highly enough. One of the best of 2009.
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