In Stores Now: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Background from the Goofy short cartoon "The Big Wash", 1948

What do you mean, "This album came out in February?" It's still "In Stores Now", isn't it? Actually, I kind of wish I'd written earlier about the self-titled debut album from New York youngsters The Pains of Being Pure at Heart because, at this point, it's all been said. They've been called "naive", "unoriginal", and "derivative" in their positive reviews - Rolling Stone bafflingly described the album as "a dark bodice-ripper for the buttoned-up-cardigan set." What is that supposed to mean? But the Pains of Being Pure at Heart (referred to hereinafter as "TPBPaH") do deserve some of these labels - they are obviously mining every vein of '80s and '90s indie-pop heritage they can rip off competently, including several British genres that are esoteric to most Americans. There's a genre called "C-86"? "Anorak" is a thing?

But the best description of TPBPaH came from some message board I was reading: "I can't not like this band because they have been genetically engineered specifically for my enjoyment." That pretty much sums up how I feel - if I love My Bloody Valentine, Talulah Gosh, Felt, the Field Mice, Jesus & Mary Chain, the Smiths, and the Vaselines, how can I not love the mutant offspring of all these bands combined? Especially when they can write songs with excellent pop hooks. The album's not perfect - at thirty-five minutes, it's a little too short. A couple tracks seem like window-dressing ("Come Saturday", "Stay Alive"), and the singles stand out a little too much. And they don't quite have enough tricks in their repertoire - it's bad news when you can sing the chorus of one of the songs on Side A over the top of one of the songs on Side B.

When they hit their stride, though, TPBPaH are capable of tweaking eight different endorphin-producing parts of my brain at once by reminding me of eight of my favorite bands. For instance, on "The Tenure Itch", they give me the jokey title wordplay of the Lucksmiths, the lyrical sincerity of the Field Mice, the high boyish vocals of Miracle Legion, the chiming guitars of early Wedding Present, and the propulsive drumming of ... I dunno, some seminal indie band that had a good drummer. Sure, it's all stitched together from things that have been done before, but when I'm smiling this hard I can't see the seams for squinting.

"The Tenure Itch" by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart