The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Belong

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, 2009's breakthrough band, finally arrive at a second album that doesn't completely convince.

After the tremendous success of their first album, there was a fear the group would gradually drift away from the excellent mix of twee pop and shoegaze to reach a wider audience... when it became known that the producers are the highly acclaimed Flood and Alan Moulder (who have worked with musicians of the caliber of U2, Depeche Mode, and Smashing Pumpkins), there was no longer any doubt: the band wants to break out of the more elitist indie environment.

"Belong" is indeed an album that does not shy away from twee melodies or dreamy atmospheres (of which "Ann with an E" is an example), but in addition to having abundantly cleaned up the sound and embellished everything with massive keyboards, it incorporates elements of grunge and American college rock that make it more appealing to the general public.

In the album, we find songs with great melodic and commercial appeal such as the title track "Belong", a successful marriage between the soft melodies of early Field Mice and the distorted melancholy of Smashing Pumpkins, followed by excellent moments that take us back to Scotland in the late 80s like "The body" (the Cure played by Stone Roses) but overall, the album is less fascinating: the American influences are really strong and songs like "Girls of 1000 dreams", with its blatantly twee melody but totally out-of-place pseudo-grunge arrangement, leave a bitter taste...

With "Too tough" and "Strange" the album concludes with two songs where dream pop influences reveal themselves and reassure us: we are not facing a low-level album, and the Pains remain a group capable of writing interesting songs and unforgettable melodies, and if we focused only on this, the rating would be almost excellent, but unfortunately, the fears that the group wants to leave behind their beginnings for more "mainstream" paths have become reality and one feels less soul and more brain in every single song...

So let's enjoy this album because the next one will almost certainly reveal a group that is increasingly cool, sure, but less and less pure of heart.