For some reason there is something about shoegaze that reminds me of summer. The amorphous melodies, the soft, subdued vocals and the droning wall of sound always somehow always bring with them images of of sunny festivalterrain on the first day of summer and the overall feeling of carelessness that goes with that. Nothing on your mind for those few days but to find out when you'll fit your meals into your packed schedule, as you drift of in a haze of music. And that's exactly what New York-based band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart evokes for me with their second album Belong.To equate The Pains of Being Pure at Heart to just any shoegaze band, however, would be to sell them short. The band garnered critical acclaim with their self-titled debut album in 2009. In 2011 they return, determined to do even better. 'I like the idea of songs that don't get beyond themselves but catch you and make an impression', singer and guitarist Kip Berman said in an interview on Pitchfork, describing the band's aim for their second album. A smart observation, since nothing can crush good intentions and claims of authenticity and as hard as over-emphasizing the aestetics, and that's one trapdoor TPOBPAH wisely aims to avoid. It's a strategy that pays of wonderfully as the band balances between the sometimes somewhat contrived lyrical compositions of bands like Hurts and fellow-shoegazers The Big Pink on the one side and generic teenrock on the other side.
What sets TPOBPAH apart is the fact that they manage to incorporate some nuance into their songs, musically as well as lyrically, thus avoiding wandering into the clichés of the genre. TPOBPAH is genuine and in today's pop scene that is fastly becoming a rare characteristic. Instead of overconstructing, the band keeps it simple, with misleadingly plain melodies and soft, sometimes dreamy vocals by Berman and Peggy Wang. No explicit tear-jerking here or dramatic excesses, just a gang of four trying to connect with their peers, by actually trying to connect with their peers. In this day and age it's something that would almost be considered the pinnacle of naïveté. Or clumsiness even, if you will. But for everyone who has not yet fallen to the creeping march of cynism, Belong can offer a range of things, going from comfort over innocent escapism to even bringing all the good things of summer to you as you close your eyes and drift of, if only for the duration of the record. Or it should at least generate a smile.
What sets TPOBPAH apart is the fact that they manage to incorporate some nuance into their songs, musically as well as lyrically, thus avoiding wandering into the clichés of the genre. TPOBPAH is genuine and in today's pop scene that is fastly becoming a rare characteristic. Instead of overconstructing, the band keeps it simple, with misleadingly plain melodies and soft, sometimes dreamy vocals by Berman and Peggy Wang. No explicit tear-jerking here or dramatic excesses, just a gang of four trying to connect with their peers, by actually trying to connect with their peers. In this day and age it's something that would almost be considered the pinnacle of naïveté. Or clumsiness even, if you will. But for everyone who has not yet fallen to the creeping march of cynism, Belong can offer a range of things, going from comfort over innocent escapism to even bringing all the good things of summer to you as you close your eyes and drift of, if only for the duration of the record. Or it should at least generate a smile.
Tracklist
1. Belong
2. Heaven's Gonna Happen Now
3. Hearts In Your Heartbreak
4. The Body
5. Anne With An E
6. Even In Dreams
7. My Terrible Friend
8. Girl Of 1,000 Dreams
9. Too Tough
10. Strange
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