album #26

the pains of being pure at heart (the pains of being pure at heart)

A solid indie-pop record. More up my alley than much of the stuff I've listened to lately. Dreamy, fuzzy, nice male-female lyric blends. Sugary, accessible pop music. Maybe a hint too delicate for my tastes. There's definitely a throwback vibe, something about the sound really captures the 1980s… part of it is the delicacy of the male vocals, the way they're slightly swallowed by the instruments- also the lovelorn, teenagery quality of the music. It's very much the music of sweetly cool, heartbroken 80's teens.

I really like the opening songs and the closing series on this album, nothing from the middle really captured my attention quite the same way. "Contender" is really good, my favorite track is "Come Saturday"- nice guitar, nice vocal hook. "Everything With You" has a fine swooning sentimentality. The synth in "A Teenager in Love" really seals this particular song as the most 80's-retro of them all. That's a pretty charming song in general. "Hey Paul" is probably my second favorite track, they really turn up the guitars for this one, in addition to a nice soaring hook. That rocking edge is missing from a little too much of the album, so it really makes this song stand out as a good one. The closer, "Gentle Sons" is really growing on me- a good, firm, dramatic sound to that song.

Great pop, nice sound, a tiny bit boring, but altogether I like it a good deal.