Allow me to deviate for a moment from my typical genre selection for this blog... All of us are unsettled from time to time concerning matters of the heart. While our relationships were secure and cozy during the wintertime, the change of seasons sometimes has that unfortunate side effect of a change of heart in our significant others...
While bleak or aggressive music can serve us well as a healthy catharsis, there are those times for pondering memories of the recent past in a different way. As you may have gathered, this blogger is in just one of those situations at present, and such circumstances inspired me to write a bit about this record.
Initially following at the band's inception, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart did not have much appeal to me personally, as dream pop revival was commonplace and the whole package the group offered did not seem to bring any fresh ideas.
Vocalist Kip Berman, the only original band member at this point, continues to lend the music his unique, somewhat saccharin tone, however, on this record there is a deeply personal aspect involved that gives it the needed weight.
Within the opening track 'Art Smock,' the narrator deals with loss, and seems to be observing the object of his affection, watching her change, and yet never really knowing her. This feels so very familiar and relatable, it's almost frightening. Discussing once again, the tone: It's very sugary and dreamy, especially with the addition of the female vocal harmonies. At first, it may seem almost dissonant - the seriousness of the words clashing with the carefree sounds... However, if you listen with a different frame of mind, one in which you imagine the narrator and subject of the song as 'over it,' or reminiscing, it begins to make sense as a whole.
The next song, 'Simple And Sure,' is a very straightforward pop song, the kind you can play with the car windows rolled down, as the chorus is repeats "I simply want to be yours" in a most satisfying way.
Skipping forward a bit, it's worth noting that there is a recurring motif of vampirism, the undead, or distorting/manipulating the body in many of the remaining songs. (So, you see there is a true connection to the theme of this belong after all!)
Lyrics such as, "I've been tracing your spine, mixing your blood with mine, when you gonna turn?" in 'Coral and Gold...'
"You had to leave the living behind," in 'Eurydice,' "Twist your body like your mind," in Masokissed, "...Stay dressed in our funeral best and sleep with open eyes," in 'Until The Sun Explodes,' and finally, "When the venom comes I'll close my eyes," in The Asp At My Chest.
Some of these are very thinly veiled euphemisms, yet others are more profound. Take for example, 'Coral And Gold.' Tracing your spine leads one to imagine a diagnosis for pain, and mixing blood may imply commiseration. After all, the narrator states, "You're further than the ocean goes, and my love's not enough to reach you." This is very striking, as if the subject of this song can do nothing to reach his lover, and she will be lost, never to turn back.
'Eurydice' is my favorite on this LP... it begins with "Out of sight, out of mind, you had to leave the living behind, and I couldn't see..." with a driving pulse of more rock-oriented music. The song continues, "So I shut my eyes and dreamt you were here, or dreamt I was in hell or thin air..." These are such real and powerful words. It's the limbo we suffer after a devastating loss of love... The male and female vocals are dueling, however, it's unclear if they are meant to portray the two subjects of this story. Perhaps the most powerful line is it's final one, "I couldn't stand to think heaven was a lie." This can be interpreted as a difficulty in reconciling why the subject's lover left him, or perhaps, since it is sung by the female... that it is the reason the female left... She had doubts about the validity of their emotions together.
Ultimately this is all very heartbreaking subject matter, yet the washed-out, dreamy state it is presented in adds an aspect which makes one feel that it is all going to be okay, so to speak. For this reason, the album has more maturity than many heart-on-sleeve indie bands one could listen to alternately, with no less sincerity. It may be worth my time to go through the band's back catalog to reintroduce myself to it in a new light, but that will be for a future post.
The album can be purchased on vinyl, CD, or digitally from the band's official site here.
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