When you put The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s debut album into iTunes, the genre comes up as ‘noisy pop’, which is pretty much bang on the mark. Contender kicks things off, a little fuzzy thing that makes me think of the Primitives getting overwhelmed by feedback. Its gentle tones ease you in nicely. Come Saturday follows, a proper indie pop classic. The drums rolls in, and the tune’s overwhelming cuteness is offset nicely by the fuzziness of effects pedals. It’s a song that reminds you of the relief of the weekend after the drudgery of your nine to five, the weight lifted and replaced by effervescent joy. Young Adult Friction comes chiming into view and this time they play it a bit more straight forward, although there’s a nice ghostly touch to the backing vocals. It comes into life though on the rallying ending. This Love Is Fucking Right! is a shy shoegazer, more upbeat like Ride than the atmospherics of Slowdive though. The Tenure Itch clatters around pretty well, but seems to be the mid album dip. It’s not bad per se, just not up to the quality of the other songs. The muffled vocals don’t help much. Stay Alive is all swirly and shuffles about in a daydream, capturing something lovely in the way Chapterhouse used to. Another indie pop classic in the form of Everything With You follows, it has a shambling feel but not as lo-fi, the hooks and slouch of early Mary Chain a divine melody and catchy chorus. A Teenager In Love is a departure, featuring some chiming guitars and rudimentary drums reminiscent of sixties girl pop while Hey Paul is the closest The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart get to being boisterous. It charges along out of control, being enveloped in fuzziness. Gentle Sons starts with a roar of plodding jet engine guitars and stomps around moodily, lost in an echo chamber, ending a very fine album with something different again.The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is released on Slumberland Records on February 3rd
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