- Record Label: Slumberland
- Release Date: Feb 3, 2009
- Critic score
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- By date
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They’re sensitive and sublime.
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Muffling their excellent knowledge of English in jangle and reverb, four theoretical nerds demonstrate why a band is better than grad school.
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There is something distinctly perfect about the naivety that the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seem to effortlessly inject into every bouncy ballad of young love and young living that makes their self-titled debut not only a welcome throwback but a much needed vacation from over-calculation.
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart can easily be at the forefront of this scene because, simply put, they have the best hooks.
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart simply made a slyly confident debut that mixes sparkling melodies with an undercurrent of sad bastard mopery.
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The album’s accompanying trappings do little to dull its impressiveness or the band’s command of its lineage.
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They’re simply better songwriters than many others in the field, and their ability to recontextualize these sounds into something so subsequently fresh and familiar is a stunning achievement.
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Pure indie-pop to hold close to your heart.
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UrbThe shimmering dream pop of the band’s debut is surprisingly accomplished and self-assured, a rare shoegaze-styled album that isn’t hellbent on aping the genre’s luminaries.
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The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have crafted an impeccable debut way beyond their years, and any misconceptions about them being mere revivalists of a scene only their elders could recall at first hand will surely be diminished instantaneously upon hearing this most accomplished of long players.
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For a band noted for their precious aesthetics, their secretly aggressive riffs and jabbing zings are the most essential facets to their authenticity.
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Everything sounds vaguely familiar, but rarely has it been done with such pristine confidence.
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A little more variation from song to song, a little more of their own sound, or another song or two as compelling as the best stuff here and the POBPAH's debut would have been classic. Settling for impressive is fair enough and good enough for fans of loud, fuzzy, and heartfelt indie noise pop.
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Under The RadarWith such impeccable taste, it's just as hard to ignore what an irresistible cocktail it is. [Winter 2009, p.74]
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Unless you demand pure, cutting-edge originality out of your pop music, this is a solid debut effort.
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This quartet's exciting debut is a dark bodice-ripper for the buttoned-up-cardigan set.
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All told it's a slightly patchy album, but one which is nonetheless saved by a couple of pop gems.
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These kinds of shameless retro-isms would usually be cause for a scathing review. But as much as we’d like to snub their lack of originality, it’s hard to deny that the Pains do what they’ve set out to do quite well.
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Anyone convinced that the C86 bands represent a nadir of tweeness will hate it--while anyone who thinks that Britpop and dance music ruined indie will fall hopelessly in love.
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UncutTheir sound is an accident born of naivety, but their unabashed love for '80s indie is unmistakeable. [Feb 2009, p.89]
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MojoHugely enjoyable, with nagging tunes too, but let's move forward next time. [Mar 2009, p.106]
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Crafting a "singular" sound is as idealistic as the next musical virtue, but this album--the band’s debut--is glaringly commonplace.
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It is a love song to the bands they grew up on, at times purely imitation as flattery, and, in those modest goals, it succeeds.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 32 out of 35
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Mixed: 3 out of 35
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Negative: 0 out of 35
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Nov 28, 2012
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Mar 13, 2012
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Jun 18, 2011