The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
I’ve written about derivative bands before. I mean, nothing comes out of the blue does it, not even the most revolutionary stuff we listen to, so there’s little point moaning about how this or that is ripped off from this, that or the other because everything borrows heavily from somewhere, we just don’t always know where.
I don’t know if it’s personal mood, then, or the degree to which you are familiar with the roots of the music but I can be really variable in my reaction to stuff which is obviously just a poppy and enjoyable re-hash of sounds heard a million times before. The Shout Out Louds pretty much do the same thing as these fellows, but that I loved, whereas this causes me to feel just a little impatience.
This takes in all sorts of decent 80s indie, from Talulah Gosh to… well, Teenager in Love could almost be Simple Minds. Basically though, for some reason it feel just a little too much like a rehash and not quite enough like a re-interpretation; or even a re-invigoration. If someone told me this was simply a song-for-song cover of an eighties indie compilation made up of bands I didn’t happen to know, it would be believable.
So it’s fun, and they do demonstrate a good knack with a catchy pop tune on more than one occasion. All in all, though, I’d have to say that there’s not enough to differentiate this musically from its very obvious influences for it to give me any great excitement as an album, despite what appears to be its wild popularity across the world of the internet.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Come Saturday
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Young Adult Friction
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Put on a checkered cardigan and listen again. It’s “gear.”
Do you actually like it or are you just being a smart-arse? I don’t mind it, honestly I don’t, but I am not feeling any sort of excitement whatsoever.
I can also go either way with the very derivative stuff, but this my favourite album of recent times. It is pure joy to me, albeit in a completely throwaway fashion, which makes it all the more joyful. I’m not joking.
“Do you actually like it or are you just being a smart-arse?” Can’t one do both?
Honestly, I really do like it, although I could certainly envision how one could die happy without having heard it. It’s not exactly breaking new ground of course, but I’m a complete sucker for this sort of thing. Jangly fuzzy guitars, boy/girl harmonies, affected British accents. It’s just excruciatingly twee. I put it in the same box with the Shout Out Louds (as you say) and My Teenage Stride and groups like that. Good fun, lots of quirky energy, but nothing to change one’s life.
Yeah I mean it isn’t anything different but something about their record keeps drawing me back for more listens. There is something really charming about them.
I may be speaking for myself but with so much music out there it is nice to have something easy to listen to that is also quite good!
Yeah, the last three posts sort of summed up what I felt about the Shout Out Louds, but for some completely unfathomable reason I just don’t feel it for this. Probably there is no good reason, just sometimes you’re in just the right mood for this sort of stuff and sometimes you aren’t.
It doesn’t please me to suggest this. It is the ‘mother reason’. The opinion one’s mother has one every album one owns:
All the songs sound the same.
Maybe it is something to do with the fuzz. I thought Magnetic Fields’ ‘Distortion’ was samey too.
Despite all the bloggy hype, I don’t think they’re fit to shine Shout Out Louds’ shoes.
C86… again?
Good work Gavin, I was trying to be nice. Spot on, although a couple are pretty hummable. Unless they have hidden talents they’ll be gone within weeks.
Nope, I think you and Gav are wrong about this lot. As for being gone in weeks, I think it says something that they’ve already been around for more than 2 years, gigging their asses off all over NYC and the rest of the Eastern US, playing all-ages shows whenever they can, making mp3’s available, pushing themselves by word of mouth, and getting signed to Slumberland, which is not a shit label at all. As for the songs sounding samey, well, maybe a bit, but not much more so that Shout Out Louds, who I also like a lot but who have been around for several years longer. People just love Shout Out Louds ‘cuz their Swedish.
And they make lovely red vinyl.
I don’t know, I realise that these guys have worked their way up and released through the likes of Cloudberry (and Slumberland) who are very god labels indeed. The comment about them not hanging around was not supposed to be a slur on their characters, simply that I don’t personally feel that the depth of songwriting (and more to the point, depth of hook-writing) is there.
If you aren’t going to be pushing the boat out much musically then you’ve got to be able to write a pretty constant supply of good hooks, and on this album these guys only seem to have a couple.
Add to that that there was way more variation of pace and mood on the Shout Out Louds’ latest album and I think we might be dealing with a different kettle of fish, somewhat.
Mind you, the Shout Out Louds first album Howl Howl Gaff Gaff didn’t grab me all that much either, so these guys might just need some time to develop.
They released a self-titled E.P in 2007, I think.
IMO, the E.P. worked better. Suited them. A short, sharp burst of their retro, ‘done’ sound was enjoyable.
Yeah, I think Slumberland is quite good. I’m no expert, but I think early Slumberland released loads of stuff that sounded like ‘The Pains…’
Do they lack ‘dimensions’? I’d be willing to bet that their next release sounds exactly like their latest release.
(Still, if it works for Camera Obscura…)
I hope I’m proved wrong. I’m liking their stuff enough to keep an eye on them and a bit more variety may go a long way.
They’re on heavy WOXY rotation, we’ve played them more than once(& like them), they’re all over SXSW & have a WOXY session there, also.
Regardless of ’samey’ opinions, it’s what people (esp. a large factor of the US youth) are listening to & (ahem) digging. In fact, right now, they sound more Swedish than Shout Out Louds – who’re a bit tiresome & definitely one trick pony, to be honest – & given their rather skilled reproduction & progression of sound & era on their current album I imagine there’ll be a shift of gear for future releases.
They can’t have been around for as long as they have, playing the ’same song’ 5 or 6 times per gig, without being found out & abandonned before they got to album stage. They certainly wouldn’t have built the grass roots support (fuck the worthless blog spunk) with a uni-directional jangle.
There are differences in there, you just have to listen past the wall of whatever it is ‘derivative’ you’re pulling out of the mix.
By the by, I’ve deleted the word derivative from my vocabluary — as you say very, very little is original any more.
Have to agree with Gav (not about the Camera Obscura stuff all sounding the same, which I feel it doesn’t) but I did like the EP released two years ago better. But I do like this EP, and yes they are very c86, but very good with it, IMHO.
“They can’t have been around for as long as they have, playing the ’same song’ 5 or 6 times per gig, without being found out & abandonned before they got to album stage.”
Black Kids, anyone? Not that I’m saying these guys aren’t way better than that, but it does happen.
And you’re right, they’ve definitely earned their shot, so good luck to ‘em. I don’t dislike it, by any means.
Oh the Black kids…sigh…loved the free download EP, was excited when they got signed and when I saw them live, then felt let down by the album. These guys are definitely way better than that.
And they let me interview them,so that’s a mark in my book!
Fuck it, they’re clearly geniuses then. Like Glasvegas.
Ha ha… touche, Mr. Toad!
Fuck it, they’re clearly geniuses then. Like Glasvegas.
well, if you want to talk about a derivative sound…
everything is derivative……
You know, you’re right Chutters, you really are. I definitely should have written something like that, say in the first paragraph of the review or something.
There’s a difference between absorbing influences and being a cliché though, isn’t there?
yeah….
everything is derivative……
exactly. That’s even derivative of my comment. We’re effectively self replicating.
As for Black Kids, without a shadow of a doubt they were fucking dreadful from the word go. Mistaking tunes for a Top Shop/H&M in-store post-ironic Gameboy generation/lonely&fat goth-cum-indie girl/angle-poise haircut advertising campaign shows exactly how 5th form they were.
i kinda like the Black Kids single…..mainly because it sounded so much like the cure
Yup, the single was good. But please, please can we not get back into the Black Kids thing ever again.
Bringing back memories of that ill-advised storecard purchase of the B7W stripey belt & skinny tie, Mr. Toad?
I clearly meant B&W
I was wearing that sort of thing long before anyone else. I’m cutting fucking edge, I am.
otherwise known as sad
So the question on everyone’s lips, quite literally, is:
Are The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart as good as a blow job off Rod Stewart?
I think we should have a stiff and extended oratory until we’ve got the subject licked.
i really like these 2 songs
Yeah, me too. They are definitely my two favourites, apart from maybe Everything With You which is also excellent.
tho you would think that they are from the late 80’s early 90’s…..i guess thats the point you’re making
Now come on.
I’ve only just actually listened to these tracks, having listened to a few seconds of the first one last night and immediately deciding, nah.
I was listening to the first one, got a bit bored about a minute in and started dicking about with the time-slider. I thought, right if this track is three minutes long, then there’ll be a guitar solo at about the two minute mark. The solo will slide up an octave out of the chord strumming, and will have an overdrive effect.
Hey fucking presto.
Then I was listening to the second one and thought, right, if this one is four minutes long, then it will break down to a bass and drums quiet section right around the three minute mark.
You’re thinking I’m trying to be clever, and it’s not attractive, but seriously, they’ve used mathematical fucking equations to put these songs together.
And there I was talking about clichés.
life is one fucking cliché Dylan….get used to it
beautiful….but your point is
Not sure, something to do with non-conformity.
Although that quote’s slightly out of context because the poem’s actually about dying in old age.
I like The Pains… – they’ve got some good hooks and some punchy songs which is ideal for a debut.
If they don’t develop past this then I’ll write them off though. I think that is probably how others (with half a brain) would react too.
I mention the brain in the context of Oasis who seem to rehash the same old songs yet still attract a legion of dullards to shows.
I suppose the dullards won’t be listening to The Pains though so they’d better keep on their toes.
Toad – is something like sound/song-writing development a topic for the Friday 5s? During the Britpop era (of which you speak so fondly) I liked Blur over Oasis on the basis that Blur were more ambitious, more experimental and more intelligent.
I feel that a band/act is only relevant if they continue to develop, once they’ve stopped developing then they are dead to me.
Consolidation is allowed in my opinion i.e. if a band do 2 albums the same then that’s ok provided the one after that exhibits progression (I suppose progression is subjective and can be measured in many different ways).
Stop fcking typing… jesus.
That would indeed be an excellent Friday 5. Might take some mulling over, but an excellent idea.
good points TT….but it is a 2-way street…with labels and the buying public sometimes baulking at any form of change.
I am guilty of that all the time.
Yes true I suppose – I was considering this in the context of music as an art form, perhaps rather naively.
Although I would say that the types of acts commercially pressurised into not deviating from their core sound and core audience are not necessarily the types of acts that you write about on this blog – most of the acts you write about here would have, to a large extent, creative freedom.
is that cos they are used to playing in front of 3 blokes 1 lass and a dog?
If you are suggesting that Toad writes about acts with no audience, I cannot support that assertion…
of course you can’t………that is cos you is deluded ha ha
joke
There is comfort in delusion…
not a joke, more like a sad truth
TT, bands don’t need to be pressurised by labels directly. The simple act of being successful with anything can paralyse people a bit for fear of changing it. I’ve seen so many businesses which I work with in Proper Job create a decent product and then waste years and years and thousands of pounds trying to create the follow up, without ever actually having the courage of their convictions to go and release anything. This must happen with bands too – success causing a sort of creative paralysis.
Yeh, you hear that Stereophonics?
I’ve never understood how some artists go about getting the kind of “creative freedom” that allows them to more-or-less dictate terms to their labels. In honor of our host, take Tom Waits and Nick Cave as examples. Neither sold millions of records early in their early days, but they both got into recording contracts that allowed them to begin producing these incredibly pioneering mid-career records. Was this just luck, or what was it?
Yeah fair enough, I can see how that might happen.
I think I’ve lost the thread of this thread. I think I was talking about bands not evolving and you have been talking about success (either critical or commercial) paralysing people into releasing a rehash or sub-standard follow up.
The two are linked of course. I think my only point (which is not a very interesting one) is that I like bands that don’t get paralysed by their success…
I think this was worth it.
Is Sufjan Stevens paralysed by his own success? Can somebody make him release a proper follow up to Illinois, not an off-cuts album, not a classical work based on a piece of infrastructure, not the odd cameo on a great album of 2007, not a mind-bending reworking of a relative unknown artist for a charity compilation. None of that, how about a new album full of songs he’s proud of. Can somone make him do this please.
A quick diversion, but on topic, kinda:
I have no idea whether anyone is that interested in the release or not (doesn’t seem to have been that much excitement in these pages as of yet), but having finally re-received my promo copy of The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists (after the old computer ate the last one when it died), & this time properly listened to it (rather than having it as background), I can say that, even though this is definitely a band that tread a narrow path musically (much like Clem Snide, truth be told, Toad), & rarely divert from an accepted ’sonic’ identity, (which, aside from the music, can also be put down to the distinctive, direction-shaping voice of Colin Meloy – which, again, can be paralleled with that of CS’s Eef Barzelay), THoL is an utterly fantastic, instantly recognisable Decemberists album (depsite the prog & cock-rock guitar augmentation) that, conversely, sounds entirely fresh & unique when compared to their back catalogue — a back catalogue that has, I would say, (mostly) succesfully moved a significant step forward, & stretched their song writing muscularity to its limits, with each release.
& breathe
Sure, there’s an immediately obvious gimmick/conceit employed in the ‘concept’ of this album (it so works as one lo-ong piece; each song running continuously into each other with no real defining end/beginning – a fucking nightmare for radio jocks one would & does wager), which (aside from the epic The Tain) marks it out as instantly different to previous fare — but, curiously, comfortably ‘them’; you could almost say that by harking back, sonically & structurally, to the ’70s for their inspiration & blueprint for THoL, they’ve also creaetd their own personal (read: fanbase) nostalgia piece (consciously, or otherwise) by revisting the structural devices of, really, their most experimental release, as mentioned, The Tain. Self-derivation, anyone?
What does this all mean? As overtly excitable as this album is on occasion, as ‘out of their comfort zone’ the heavy electric guitars take them, as predictable as the child’s choir is, as reliably, predictably dependable (& theatrically conceited) as the narrative/lyrical arc is in dictating the ebb & flow of the musical compositions (from massive/smashing surf waves to gently rocking calm waters), it is undeniably a Decemberists record & that recognition, in amongst the new guitar effects pedals, only adds to what a fucking corker it is.
Rock Opera, yes it is. Pompous & self-indulgent, absolutely. But, I think it’s the record Meloy has been trying to make for years, & as much as it may lose some of the more fey-tuned listeners (because it is different, harder, less camp than previous fare; more Alice Cooper-cum-John Spencer Blues Explosion) I think it will be, way down the line, hailed as a classic of its genre (which is whatever is now shorthand for pseudo-caberet/broadway pop/psych-folk/theatrical rock/kitchen sink indie).
No idea if any of that makes sense – I’m existing on 2hrs sleep since yesterday, so the train of thought’s a little derailed – but in short:
very fucking recommended.
10/10.
Stick that in your arse Shout Out Louds.
See, now you’ve just ruined it for me because there’s no way any album can live up to this! Christ, even if I listened to a fucking choir of angels whilst suckling on a gin nipple and being blown in turn by a university fucking netball team it would be as good as you seem to think this is.
Oh, be thankful for the “prog & cock-rock guitar augmentation” then! :-p
It really is that good. Honest. It needs to be listened to at Toad Hall neighbour deafening levels & all in one go. Start to finish. Should see your way through a bottle of gin, that, too.
You’ve sold me DC….i’m getting it on release….oh to be a person who got albums on pre-release…..
Just start a blog, Tom.
Any semi-literate, slopey-headed, knuckle-dragging neanderthal can write a music blog.
Racist.
Racist? what to Neanderthal’s?
There’s nothing wrong with book learnin’, Mr. Dyran.
Chut: you can pre-order it from their site now (which is what I’ve done also, on vinyl, + T Shirt bundle) & get it pretty much ahead of most of your record buying folk…
You can buy their album on T-shirt?!
You saying I now need to buy a T-shirt player?!
I haven’t even got a record player anymore! I can only play CDs through my PC! Where the hell am I supposed to even put a T-Shirt player?! Have you seen my living room?!
“Just start a blog, Tom.”
Just Google, Tom(!)
Mr. Dyran yoo sor farnny.
i’ve just googled Gav….what do you recommend to buy off your site
1st choice: Morning Bride. It’s brilliant.
bought…..if it’s shite you owe me a pint Toad
It’s cheaper than a pint! You’ll only owe him a half, Toad.
Order is now in the hands of our postal department. It keeps the old lass busy in her retirement. Actually, it doesn’t keep her busy at all. If only…
Seriously though, thanks Tom. I would guess people who buy direct from Letterbox don’t realise how much I appreciate their custom. One small step further towards the black
Ooh! Good records for less than £2. Who could baulk at that?
If I hadn’t just bought a drum kit I’d be shopping!
Actually, much as i love Morning Bride, my favourite release on gav’s Letterbox label is the Penny Century album. It’s gorgeous.
Oh yes, I remember you giving that a glowing review. That one’s definitely worth investigating as well, Chutters, if you’re feeling flush.
Awww, thanks guys! New Penny Century E.P. out mid April, as it happens.
If anyone is after something, but feeling a bit short on the money side of things, just give me a shout and I’m sure we can work something out.
Maybe your sister is free one evening. You know, that sort of thing.
I might have to make her available for the weekend if you’re charging as much as two quid.
I bought this Cd on the basis of your dodgy ‘can’t really recommend it’ review Matthew. It was everything you all said. and thanks I love it. Tune in to the the anti toad it works.
I am very, very sorry for you.
Too many Ramones gigs for me to ever properly recover.