Some Noise, Some Melody

Unusually for me, I've been listening to a fair bit of contemporary tunes recently. As well as the M83 and British Sea Power albums I've mentioned, I fell in love the other day with the song Search Party by Small Black. In addition, the last two weeks have seen me hammering the self-titled album by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, released in 2009.

For this, I have to thank my good friend Simon, who tipped me off after a discussion about Galaxie 500 and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Certainly, on first listen the comparison to Boston's finest seemed apt, with Kip Berman having a similar whiney vocal style to Dean Wareham and their general sounds (skinny guitars, droning bass) does call to mind a more fey Psychocandy. Repeating playthroughs, however, have revealed a somewhat wonderful set of songs that have left me eagerly awaiting the follow-up.

Somewhat strangely to this hack, I've read reviews that have used comparisons to Joy Division and the Smiths: they have neither the sparse intensity of one, or the complex structures of the other. What they do have is a knack for a great tune: the 1-2-3 of This Love Is Fucking Right!, The Tenure Itch and Stay Alive is as good a short progression of songs as I've heard this century. Stay Alive is particularly glorious, all jangling guitars and gorgeous vocal harmonies between Berman and keys player/backing vocalist Peggy Wang.

While a lot of this kind of dream-pop often takes vague lyrical themes of isolation and other kinds of existential despair, this band here seem to prefer a more simple approach: being a teenager crops up throughout, notably in Young Adult Friction and (more obviously) A Teenager In Love, the riff from which reminds me - somewhat weirdly - of Bowie's Modern Love.

Minor criticisms would be that in can get a little samey after a while, though the penultimate Hey Paul livens things up with a nicely distorted bassline and the closing Gentle Sons is probably the best tribute to the sound of the early Jesus and Mary Chain as you're likely to hear. Quibbles aside, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is an excellent album worth checking out if you need a soundtrack to a few hours daydreaming in a field.