For the first album by NYC’s fine, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the band offered a raucous collection of fast moving songs with a dream-pop vocal sound. Released in 2009, the album helped to propel the band forward in the ever changing stream of indie rock in the New York city market. With NYC already a hot-bed of important music from the beginning of Rock and Roll (Dylan, Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and so many others), it always is a good idea to pay a little bit of closer attention to this city. Certainly, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart has great company.
With the release of the band’s second album, Belong, in 2011, the band adopted a slower, more pop-style that adapts more to their vocal productions. Less jangly and fuzzy, a lot more intricate, the pop/rock appeal of Belong set the band on a definite course.
With the release of their latest, Days Of Abandon, fans of the dream-pop band will have ten stunning Pop tracks to enjoy, measuring them to other such bands as the year progresses. Each song on the album are as friendly to radio as could be possible, which makes Days Of Abandon, in a “friendlier’ time, say the ’80s, an album that would have broken The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart into the mainstream. Which should happen anyway given the musical excellence of this NYC-influenced gem.
Songs like “Simple And Sure”, the excellent “Kelly”, the Blondie-like “Life After Life”, and the psychedelic blast of “Until The Sun Explodes” will help serve to establish Days Of Abandon as perhaps one of the better Pop albums of 2014. I’ve followed this band since their start. I’ve been pleased with them and their progression. I definitely look forward to their continued efforts.
I can’t recommend The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart enough. I’m even more enamored with their new album. Days Of Abandon is a great third album.
You stream the entire album below after the two representative videos.
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Label: Yebo Music
Website
Availability: CD, DD, LP
–Matt Rowe