Heave Media

The Pains Aren't a Pain At All

Dust off the hype, this is the spring soundtrack.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Released on Feb 03, 2009

Hailing from Brooklyn, naming your band after an unpublished children’s story written by a friend, and combining elements of three decades worth of indie rock to create a new version of itself would be three separate nails in three decidedly morbid coffins for most bands.  It seems almost reactionary that The Pains of Being Pure At Heart are one step ahead of the death-by-blog-hype syndrome that surrounds them. 

I walked into listening to The Pains with as much forthright animosity as I could muster.  With a name like that, self-titling your first full-length, and my reading the term “shoegazer” a record number of times during my research, it was all I could do to even sit through a critical listen.

But the hype and all the preconceptions were right where The Pains’ detriments stop.  From the get-go, one thing is clear: there’s a reason there is hype around this band.  The lead track, “Contender,” roars in with feedback and jangling guitars that are more than welcome.  It’s a rollicking track that builds up to a complete lack of climax, reflective of the possibly self-admonishing reprise, “you never were a contender.”

It’s not all self-loathe and depression though.  The hyper-motivated “Come Saturday” explodes through headphones at a pace so buoyant and brimming with pop hook that you’ll wish Kip Berman wasn’t so damn charming.  He sings in a faux-Brit accent that is at once coy and completely self-aware.  These are songs of heartbreak, being in love, getting hurt, staying in, and always understanding that there’s something funny involved.  It’s a silver lining record if there ever were one. 

With melodies thicker than peanut butter and a healthy dose of distortion across the whole record, The Pains feel like they’re right out of an ‘80s lo-fi soundtrack.  One spin, though, on a decent stereo will have you thinking otherwise.  It’s not the sort of reverb-drunk sound that masks production quality and instrumentation, but an ear for that “new-gazer” buzz that does all the work you’d expect from a  major label release, not an independent freshman band.

The album pounds through its ten tracks, feeling more like a teenager on two parts cocaine and one part heroin, than your standard snore-rock.  The instantly appealing centerpiece, “Stay Alive,” is about the slowest track and it still moves at a danceable pace.  But with enough positive reinforcement in the lyrics to turn Hitler on to Anne Frank, who wouldn’t want to dance along to anything The Pains do?

The Pains, given all the hype and all the obvious references to every fetishized band in existence, beg a few questions.  Are they doing something brand new?  No.  Are they being completely original?  No.  Are they doing something that sounds good?  F*ck yes.  The Pains of Being Pure At Heart are just the right amount of pop and walloping noise to hook even the most Rob Gordon-ish listeners.  They take innocence and make it mature, they mold scars into beauty marks, but above all, they make accessible, enjoyable, complicated pop.  Throw this one on as soon as the warm weather breaks, it’s a perfect soundtrack to spring.

Posted by Mark Steffen on Mar 10, 2009 @ 6:00 am