Review: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Days of Abandon
[Rainbow Music/Yebo; 2014]
Rating: 7/10
By Marley Scott, Features Editor
Key Tracks: “Art Smock,” “Eurydice,” “Simple and Sure”
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are masters at capturing the essence of how light-hearted and dreamy life can be. Most musicians approach the human condition with the intention to hurt it, or make it return to a previous state of unrest, but The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart know how to bring it to the bright side of things. It’s a unique approach to music, one that’s refreshing and kind to the soul. Perfect for a transition in seasons.
The group continues its love affair with living with the release of Days Of Abandon. This love affair is far from unrealistic, though. It captures the harsh truths of life and displays them for the listener in a masked, gentle way.
This record opens with the heavily descriptive acoustic number “Art Smock.” The song tells a story of growing apart from someone and watching him or her turn into someone new, someone unknown. Musically, the song is soft and gorgeous, and the lyric writing follows suit. It begins with an acoustic guitar and the music builds as it progresses. The lyrics are straightforward, yet creative, with the disappearance of an art smock correlating directly to the disappearance of a relationship. It’s short and sweet.
“Simple and Sure” was strategically released as a single. It’s probably the catchiest track on Days Of Abandon, which says quite a bit. It’s jumpy and clever in a way that is only found in music from 1980, and captures the simplicity of just wanting to belong to someone else, a relatable position for the hopeless romantics. Another sweet single is “Eurydice,” which is enjoyable for the same reasons.
One critique of the record is that it becomes redundant and boring, as the techniques used to create Days Of Abandon’s tracks are the exact same as those used in all of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s releases. Furthermore, this is not for the people who look for music to attend to their emotional shortcomings. This is a record for the happy and positive, a record to uplift and cause shoulders to shimmy behind steering wheels. Mopers beware.
There’s a slow, sensitive gem to be found in “Coral and Gold.” The pleasing color scheme could be used to describe the aesthetic of the record, as the bashfulness of coral and the richness of gold are laced among the sounds used to build the song.
Days Of Abandon is a seamless continuation of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s discography, one that is perfectly spaced out and leaves its followers craving for more of the lust for life that its music inspires.
