''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were an American indie pop band from New York City, formed in 2007. The band centered around founding member and principal songwriter Kip Berman (vocals, guitar). In the band's final iteration, Berman was joined ...

. It was released on February 3, 2009 by

Slumberland Records Slumberland Records is an American independent record label, formed in 1989 in Washington, D.C. and based in Oakland, California. The label has released recordings by Velocity Girl, Honeybunch, Lilys, Stereolab, Evans The Death, St. Christopher ...

. The band recorded the album at Honeyland Studios in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. ''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' was released to generally warm critical reception.

Musical style

The album's sound has been compared to My Bloody Valentine,

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The Field Mice The Field Mice were an English indie rock band on the independent record label Sarah Records. They had top 20 success in both the singles and albums UK Independent Charts. Career The Field Mice initially formed as a duo from South London subur ...

, and

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they rele ...

Release

''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' was released in the United States on February 3, 2009 by

. In other territories, the album was released by different labels, including

Fortuna Pop! Fortuna POP! was an English independent record label based in London, started in 1995 by Sean Price. It specialised in indie pop music. Fortuna POP! previously promoted gigs under the banner of The Beat Hotel and then Basement Scam at the Buffal ...

in Europe, Lost & Lonesome Recording Co. in Australia, and Fastcut Records in Japan. Three singles were released from ''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'': "Everything with You" on October 14, 2008, "Young Adult Friction" on March 31, 2009, and "Come Saturday" on September 8, 2009.

Critical reception

''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album holds a score of 76 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''

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s Nathaniel Cramp praised it as "pure

indie-pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

to hold close to your heart." ''

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'' accorded the album a "Best New Music" designation, with reviewer Ian Cohen writing that the band had "made a slyly confident debut that mixes sparkling melodies with an undercurrent of sad bastard mopery". David Bevan of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' called the band "sensitive and sublime", while

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of ''

MSN Music ''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008. History I ...

'' said of them: "Not only do they have a sound, they have tunes, and the words bring both home."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Tim Sendra was more reserved in his praise, finding that the album would have benefited from "a little more variation from song to song, a little more of

he band's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

own sound, or another song or two as compelling as the best stuff here", while concluding: "Settling for impressive is fair enough and good enough for fans of loud, fuzzy, and heartfelt indie

noise pop Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazi ...

." Maddy Costa of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' concluded that "anyone convinced that the ''

C86 ''C86'' is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine ''NME'' in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music gen ...

'' bands represent a nadir of tweeness will hate it – while anyone who thinks that

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

and

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

ruined indie will fall hopelessly in love." ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

Matthew Fiander found the band overly derivative and felt that on the second half of the album, "the melodies sound a little too simple, the vocals almost anemic, and the songs take on a dreary-afternoon trudge." ''Pitchfork'' ranked ''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' at number 19 on its list of the best albums of 2009, while "Young Adult Friction" placed at number 30 on the website's list of the best tracks of the year. In 2018, ''Pitchfork'' listed ''The Pains of Being Pure at Heart'' as the 28th best

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

album.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart * Kip Berman – guitar, vocals * Kurt Feldman – drums * Alex Naidus – bass * Peggy Wang – keyboards, vocals Production * Jon Chaikin – mastering * Archie Moore –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing Design * Pavla Kopecna – inside photography (CD edition), back cover photography (LP edition) * Kendra Rutledge – front cover photography

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The 2009 debut albums The Pains of Being Pure at Heart albums Slumberland Records albums Fortuna Pop! Records albums