Review: Purity Ring - Another Eternity
By Sammi Nelson, Blogs Editor
[4AD; 2015]
Rating: 7.5/10
Key Tracks: “Heartsigh,” “Push Pull,” “Stranger Than Earth”
Three years after dropping its debut album Shrines, the musical duo Purity Ring has released its sophomore album Another Eternity, which is as collaterally innovative and mesmerizing as Shrines. Many artists fall short of the hype built for new albums when they are finally released. In this case, musicians Megan James and Corin Roddick are not among them.
With Another Eternity, Purity Ring delivers an album that not only stays true to its original sound, but one that also implements new musical techniques and styles that evolve the music and make it unique to Shrines.
Throughout the album, Roddick’s excited synth notes whir and vibrate while melodic, ambient tones grace the tracks, creating a pleasing balance between the hyper electronic and the mellow, dream pop tones. A heavy bassline lies underneath these tones as support, which altogether produces Another Eternity’s musical disposition.
The first several tracks on the album are bright and airy. “Push Pull,” the first single released from the album, is a perfect example of this portion of the album. The song is fluid and allows the listener to become absorbed in its lovely notes as if they were floating. Opening track “Heartsigh” begins with high-toned piano notes before a low bassline starts to boom underneath James’ vocals.
The lyrics featured are poetic and invoke heart-wrenching (or in this case, heart-sighing) emotions from the listener, especially with the line in the bridge when James sings, “Whisk away your heart sigh and bury it in mine.”
An interesting thing to point out about Purity Ring is that with many of its songs, the lyrical and track-titling process includes combining two or three words to create one that represents a feeling, phenomenon or even a new concept. The name “Heartsigh” kind of speaks for itself, but another example is “Obedear” from Shrines, which is a combination of the fragment “Oh but dear.”
“Stranger Than Earth” is when the album gets a little edgier. The song’s repetition of claps and ticks along with its booming bass makes it one of the most energetic songs on the album. “Begin Again” follows “Stranger Than Earth,” and was the second single released from the album. It maintains the edgy tone that “Stranger Than Earth” sets for the second portion of the album and takes it a little further.
“Dust Hymn” also maintains and expands on the darker tones that the previous tracks had, but also bursts with exciting beats. The song will certainly enchant listeners with it production techniques as well as with its lyrical mentions of dust-filled hymns and lullabies.
Another Eternity is an album that has been anticipated since 2012’s Shrines. After the last three years, listeners will be pleased to find that the duo took the time to make an album that was well worth the wait.
