The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Lifted from the New York band’s soon to be released sophomore effort of the same name, ‘Belong’ is a graceful slice of feedback laden charm. With the soft Cure-esque introductory melody segueing effortlessly into distorted guitar it’s clear that whilst The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have retained the wistful allure of their debut they’ve managed to conjure a far more exuberant sound this time around.

The waves of speaker crushing guitars work in joyous unison with the warm, floating vocals of Kip Berman and Peggy Wang, and never, thankfully, stray into the overly explosive, self indulgent territory. The guitar lines on ‘Belong’ are as infectious as anything on their debut, and markedly much more rounded in terms of composition.

All the introspective visceral energy of their debut is saved for for B-Side ‘I Wanna Go All The Way’. ‘Belong’ instead offers a sound far tighter and more densely crafted than anything The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have previously achieved. This is without doubt the band’s most provocative song in their repertoire to date.

With their sophomore soon to be released, if this, their first single from that album is anything to go by then the ‘Belong’ LP should be the album that secures The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart as the darlings of their scene. They are a band on the cusp of asserting themselves as musicians capable of producing something truly celebratory.