The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
SLR 89 » released February 2009
DIGITAL » Bandcamp | Apple Music | Amazon Music1. | Contender | 6. | Stay Alive |
2. | Come Saturday | 7. | Everything With You |
3. | Young Adult Friction | 8. | A Teenager In Love |
4. | This Love Is Fucking Right! | 9. | Hey Paul |
5. | The Tenure Itch | 10. | Gentle Sons |
To celebrate the 15th birthday of this classic album, we're doing this very special silver nugget vinyl edition. It's expected to ship on or before the January 17th release date. If you order this along with other items we'll ship your order when everything is in stock.
The band is also doing a series of unmissable reunion shows in Spain and Portugal in early 2025. Tickets on sale now!
- Feb 19 - Porto (PT) - Mouco
- Feb 20 - a Coruña - Garufa
- Feb 21 - Oviedo - Sala Gong
- Feb 22 - Tarragona - Sala Zero
- Feb 23 - Madrid - Lula Club
- Feb 24 - Sevilla Sala X
- Feb 26 - Murcia - Sala REM
- Feb 27 - Valencia - 16 Toneladas
- Feb 28 - Barcelona - Razzmatazz 2
- Mar 01 - Zaragoza - Las Armas
- Mar 02 - San Sebastian - Dabadaba
Finally, our friends at Disk Union in Tokyo will have an exclusive edition on light blue vinyl with pink and violet splatter. Those are also on pre-order now and you can only get them direct from Disk Union.
Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most talked about pop bands in years. Their distinctive brand of noisy pop is a tidy distillation of all the great noise-pop precedents - early MBV, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship - but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song. They have released a handful of singles on classy labels like Slumberland, Fortuna Pop!, Atomic Beat and Cloudberry, each one issued to greater anticipation and even wilder reception. Critical acclaim has come from such varied quarters as Stereogum, Fader, Big Takeover, Indie Pages, Skatterbrain, Drowned In Sound, Indie-MP3, Clash Magazine and uncountable others.
Following up the band's ace "Everything With You" single and whirlwind Swedish tour, we are delighted to bring you their self-titled debut album. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart is an instant classic, packed with brilliantly-executed pop gems that blend the rush of youthful enthusiasm with crafty arrangements, well-honed tunes and buckets of guitar racket. Drawing on the sparkling legacy of the best of 80s and 90s pop, POBPAH update the timeless noisy pop template with a thoroughly modern viewpoint and a very distinctive, playful personality. There is something instantly identifiable about a Pains tune, and it is the essential "rightness" of their records that has captured the attention of pop fans around the world and raised anticipation levels for this album to a near-fever pitch.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart delivers on this promise with perfect assurance. Smashing tunes like "Come Saturday" and "Young Adult Friction" are classic three minute masterpieces that simply beg the be played on repeat. "Stay Alive" and "Gentle Sons" show the band can slow it down and still rock it, and "Hey Paul" is as brash a slice of noise-blast guitar pop as you'll hear all year. Weighing in at a flawlessly-conceived ten songs, this is all the album that Pains fans had hoped for. Handily transcending easy pigeonholes like "indie pop" and "indie rock," it is just a great album that shows a smart young band fulfilling their potential and crafting a very convincing statement of purpose.
Notes:
also available » Perfect Right Now LP/CD
also available » Belong LP
also available » Higher Than The Stars EP
also available » Simple And Sure 7" single
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