Album Review: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Facts about this album:
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are Alex (bass) Kip (guitar/vocals) Kurt (drums) and Peggy (keyboard/vocals)
The band share their US label, Slumberland, with Crystal Stilts
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart initially formed for a one-off gig at Peggy’s birthday party

Album review:
This time last year it was as if someone had been leaving copies of ‘Graceland’ in every thrift-store in Brooklyn. Now it seems like someone has come across a job lot of NME’s legendary ‘C86’ tape of fey indie bands, because they’re all at it – Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and now this lot. Everything from the oh-so-twee name to singer Kip Berman’s affected English accent screams wrong, but it sounds so right; a bit of Mary Chain here, a withering Moz-esque turn of phrase there and a lot of early, jangly My Bloody Valentine everywhere else. But it’s much more than the sum of its parts and too effortlessly effervescent to be studied. Pure indie-pop to hold close to your heart. Nathaniel Cramp

8 out of 10