When The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released their self-titled debut in 2009, they received much acclaim (everywhere) and some groans (TMT Review) at the somewhat contrived similarities with My Bloody Valentine. This March, POBPAT will release their sophomore full-length, and as if to remove any doubt of their influences, they brought in producer Mark Ellis (a.k.a. Flood, known for work with Smashing Pumpkins, U2, and PJ Harvey) and mixer Alan Moulder — renowned for credits with (you guessed it) My Bloody Valentine, as well as The Jesus & Mary Chain and Arctic Monkeys.
If the complaint with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart was that they were overwhelmingly trapped by comparisons, we can maybe hope for something a little different with the new album, according to the press release: that “beautifully self-contained sound” is “vast and magnificent, banishing once and for all any associations to ‘lo-fi’ and bringing [POBPAT] into heretofore unmapped widescreen dimensions.” For a band that initially fit so easily into readymade categories, the title of this supposedly evolved work is a little worrisome: Belong. A description of the title track, their latest single, also belies any hope of the band sloughing off constant comparisons; “Belong” is “positively anthemic, with buzzsaw-ing, Smashing Pumpkins-circa-Gish guitars…” (Flood’s contribution, maybe?).
Whoever or whatever the new album may sound like, there was nothing exactly to dislike before, and Belong promises to be another bright, heartwarming offering from these New York connoisseurs of pop. The album is out March 15 from Slumberland Records, but in the meantime, you can listen to single “Belong” here. And don’t forget about their tourdates with Twin Shadow!
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: http://www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart
• Slumberland: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com