The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: Belong

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Belong
Rating: Meh

The self-titled debut by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart was one of my top albums of 2009. It was the perfect mix of late 80s early 90s alternative guitar bands like MBV, Lush, Ride, coupled with snarky Smithsian/Belle and Sebastian-esque lyrics, full of wry observations and black humor. Their sound was admittedly raw and unpolished, but this only added to their charm. When I heard news that the band enlisted the help of uber-producers Flood and Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, PJ Harvey) to work on the follow up, I was worried that it would alter their sound too much, however, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and let the finished product speak for itself. So, here we have Belong.

It starts out promising with lead single and title track "Belong," which still has the same, twisted lyrical sense of humor, but the music is notably thicker, denser and more polished. It wasn't as striking a contrast as I initially imagined, but it was certainly different.



The song has more crunch, and the individual sounds are all crystal clear and mixed perfectly. And it is clearly evident that a lot of money and time was spent getting this sound down. In fact, probably too much time was spent on the production, as each song ends up bleeding into one another. Their debut was so rough around the edges and ramshackle, and gave the band a distinct sound. Each song separate from each other but coalescing into a marvelous whole. On Belong, what made the band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart so special is practically erased. Instead, we get a group of 10 extremely buffed and glossy alt-rock tunes, that have almost no character of their own. Furthermore, the vocals are so buried in the mix, you can barely understand any of the lyrics, which is one of the key reasons to enjoy the band.

Individually, there are several good to ok songs lurking within the album. I enjoyed the crunchy title track, and "Heart In Your Heartbreak," is propelled by a tight rhythm section, and a killer chorus:



"My Terrible Friend," is a terrific rush of whooshing Disintegration-era Cure synths, and bright acoustic guitars:



The remaining tracks all begin to blur into one another, lacking texture and differentiation. Moulder and Flood have buffed and shined the band out of any distinct personality. The songs start to follow a formula, directly opposite from their debut. Each song contains ethereal keyboards, sparkling guitars, and hushed vocals. The generic 80s-like synths and guitars of "The Body" sound like an outtake from Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic:



It all begins to sound like something you would hear late into the second hour of 120 Minutes back in the day on MTV. "Even In Dreams," just meanders on a bland beat and crunched up guitars:



"Too Tough," sounds like it could fit squarely on any Lemonheads album:



Even when the band attempts to punch things up, the results are only slightly more successful. "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now," has a bouncy step and gorgeous guitars, but by the time of the chorus, and the expected crunch of guitars, it becomes predictable and bland:



"Girls of 1000 Dreams" falls into the same trap, luring you in with fuzzed out guitars and messier production, but it is just a little too late in the album to rescue what has become a slog; but it does somewhat hint at what the album should have sounded like:



As a general rule, I have no issue with a band wanting to change or improve their sound, however, it's difficult when the band messes up what drew interest to them in the first place. By relying on Flood and Alan Moulder to beef up their sound, they unfortunately went too far, becoming so generic that the songs lose any character. I listen to Belong and I "like" every song; they have good melodies and the sound is impeccable. The problem is the songs are not very memorable. Once the album is done playing I can hardly remember which songs are which. Belong is a slight misstep for this band. I hope on their next release they remember what makes them special to begin with and use that as a base in which to climb higher.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.