Nick’s Favourite Music of 2011
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - HEART IN YOUR HEARTBREAK
And we’re back! Happy Boxing Day!
Some time around the start of the year, a friend of mine was lamenting that there weren’t any bands picking up where the Smashing Pumpkins left off in the mid-Nineties with Mellon Collie…’s lighter moments.
(For those about to point out that the Pumpkins are still recording, he knows. He is only too aware of that fact.)
Anyway, come the Easter break, the second album by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is finally released, and neatly fills that gap like a hand in a velvet glove (most likely due to the hiring of Flood and Alan Moulder), while still building on their previous work. While their equally fine debut was more lyrically focused (and, yes, fine, a little twee), Belong allows the melodies to take prominence. It is, as Kip Berman said, more instinctive and open. Let’s just hope they don’t go all techno-goth on us.
