Second Hurdle

Second album syndrome, eh? It’s a complete bastard and has been the ruination of many a promising young career.

For those unaware, it goes thus: band forms, writes some songs, plays some gigs, gets signed, records said songs, goes out and tours for a year. Then they come back and have to record a follow-up. It’s been said countless times before – "you have your whole life to write the first album, then six weeks to do the second".

Those that buck the trend tend to be the kind who could write an albums worth of quality songs while waiting for the bath to run (young Elvis Costello, Morrissey/Marr) or bands who had a songwriter that had been around the block enough to have built up a large collection of songs (Guy Chadwick from the House of Love, or Ric Ocasek from the Cars spring to mind).

Maybe a year or so ago, I knocked out a piece about the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and their debut album. Now here they are, second album in with plenty of critical praise and success on the live circuit pushing them on. I meant to buy this a few months ago, but on seeing them play a somewhat flat gig in Manchester (though most of the crowd seemed happy enough), it took seeing it reduced to a fiver for me to take a punt.

Here’s the rub right away: it’s not as good as the first album. If I was going to hand out grades, the debut would have got an A-, while Belong gets a B. In its grooves is to be found some of their strongest songs yet, but there’s also a fair bit of filler that gives an impression of a scramble for material when it came to entering the studio.

From the start: the title track’s opening seconds recall the Sundays, with it’s pretty uplifting melody. When the guitar crunch kicks in moments later, it put things more in the sphere of Today by the Smashing Pumpkins. Kip Berman doesn’t have the vocal chords of Billy Corgan (good or bad thing? You decide) and it’s only when Peggy Wang’s backing comes in that the melody emerges from the soup.

The good then: Even In Dreams and Strange are both completely brilliant. The best things they’ve done to date and I’ve repeat played the two of them countless times over the last week. Anne With An E is also a nice shift from the general mid-tempo that goes across the album into something more atmospheric. The keyboard riff in My Terrible Friend is also 80s-tastic in the best possible way.

The bad: as previously noted, there’s some filler here. Kip Berman’s voice comes across as trying too hard to sound more accessible, when he really shouldn’t worry as it’s never going to appeal to the masses. That said, there’s plenty here that you can imagine being the soundtrack to a particularly dramatic scene on one of those obnoxious American teen drams that Channel 4 (or Four More, or whatever the fuck it’s called) seem to love. Finally, the rhythm section (especially the bassist) rarely try anything adventurous. C’mon chaps, a little bit of groove now and then doesn’t hurt.

In conclusion: as second albums go, it’s good enough to give them time to (hopefully) develop further and produce a third. For a five pound note in your local Fopp store, it’s worth your investment. Readers in Canada/Australia/Russia/etc may wish to switch Fopp for your relevant local cheap record shop.