The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

In terms of pop, one rarely finds that true bubbly loveliness that teleports to summer. Teleports and instantly heats, warmth stretching the corners of your mouth into a comfortable grin. Teeth or no teeth, this is the kind of pop that really kicks ass. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are true to the core of this very definition.

Hailing from Brooklyn, this lot are taking it back to the early nineties; but instead of making drones, noise, etc. they’re putting out the kinda stuff you’d expect on the soundtrack to ‘She’s All That’. Freddie Prinze Jr. would have lapped that shit up. The sunshine bubblegum vocals alternate boy-girl. The cuteness is, it’s got to be said, accentuated by the singers’ names: Kip and Peggy. Awww, awesome! Their soft voices play nicely alongside the hard hitting drums and work perfectly with their choice in production style. Track ‘This Love Is Fucking Right!’ hits all the right spots: what a great song name. Saying that aloud feels fucking great! And the sound mirrors this feeling exactly. The riff echoes the bright green of an east coast college campus. Yet the lyrics are pretty bleak: “Can you go home and look your best friend in the eye? / No you can’t go home, after where you slept last night”.

‘Cos that’s just it: something right is always wrong on the other side. And that is what The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart capture so wonderfully; that everything can be great and lovely and shiny if you just stop giving a shit about the rest. So fuck it, let’s make sweet sweet pop.