The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Belong (Slumberland)
New York’s Pains of Being Pure at Heart return after one of the most winning albums of 2009, and though Belong doesn’t amount to a sophomore slump, the freshness that accompanied their earlier album isn’t quite there. That’s inevitable, I suppose. First albums succeed in part because of the new, and PBPH’s self-titled album radiated the kind of youthful charm that depends in large part on timing and sincerity. But Belong lacks freshness mostly because the influences, or antecedents, are just a tad too obvious. There was never any doubt, I think, that these guys were influenced by British bands of the 80s-90s, but there was enough synthesis to make it work. The best song on the first album, Young Adult Friction, sounded like it could have been sung by Morrisey with The Strokes as a backing band. Belong, though, almost sounds like an homage. Some of this has to be intentional—the first fifteen seconds of track one, Belong, have to be a tribute to My Bloody Valentine. As we move into the middle tracks, it’s harder for me to pin down specific bands, but it’s difficult not to imagine Molly Ringwald biting her lower lip to a John Hughes soundtrack. When we reach “My Terrible Friend,” however, the jig is up. The song is a dead ringer for “Friday I’m in Love” by the Cure, with the same dancing basslines and synth overlays, and the following two tracks are pure Jesus and Mary Chain circa Automatic.
Despite all this, I can’t help but enjoy this album. Partly, I’m just a sucker for these bands that shaped my youth. But partly because The Pains do add enough of their own stuff—mostly through Kip Berman’s still sweet singing and the more American style guitar work—to keep Belong from sounding like another Fakebook. It’ll stick around in my player for a while.
The whole album can be sampled on their site.