the pains of being pure at heart - the pains of being pure at heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's debut LP is perfect.

Too perfect.

The kind of perfect that does nothing original whatsoever, adds nothing to the state of music in general, and should result in the artists responsible having to pay substantial amounts of money to the numerous people they've blatantly plagiarized from.

Upon a second listen, it's simultaneously gorgeous and disgusting. Taken on face value, there's nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, it's pretty much brilliant—shoegazer pop riddled with perfect hooks, beautiful harmonies, all laid over an ever-present dense, ringing guitar feedback, creating a sound that's one part Beach Boys and another part Jesus & Mary Chain. What's not to like?

Everything.

Your average listener can pick every song on this album apart and point out exactly who and what they're ripping off at any given second.

It's borderline criminal.

Actually, scratch that. It is criminal. Somebody get me a lawyer.

The Raveonettes, the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Beach Boys, the Cure—hell, even the Beatles are getting a paycheck out of this. It is their music, after all, just crafted and molded into something semi-new sounding, just enough to fool the less musically educated among us.

Not that this kind of thing doesn't happen all the time, because it absolutely does. That is what rock and roll is made of, after all. The Raveonettes are a perfect example of this, and yet even they are getting robbed of their (un)musical merits.

Criminals robbing criminals robbing criminals, that's what this is. And even if I can't prosecute all the regular old criminals, since they pretty much make up music itself, the least I can do is prosecute these exponential offenders.

Justice must be served. This cannot and will not stand.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to this album. Again and again and again. Because damn it, it's still perfect.


Edited 6/7/2010