The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

BelongPIAS/Fortuna POP! ***

Indie pop with lashings of guitar are 10-a-penny, so in order to make an impression you have to know the difference between a bloody mess and My Bloody Valentine. It also helps if you know Sonic Youth’s snarl from Velvet Underground’s caress. Brooklyn’s TPOBPAH clearly know their indie-pop history; they know it’s littered with failures, which is why they blend the aforementioned influences (along with The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mission of Burma and The Beatles) into a noise that is just the right side of scuzzy. Belong is the follow-up to 2008’s self-titled album, and comes with the kind of taut tunes that could nail down a hatch in a thunderstorm. Every track is a winner, from the first track to number 10 on the list, Strange. It’s been done many times before, but when guitar-driven indie-pop is this good it’d be a sin to deny the pleasures. See thepainsofbeing pureatheart. com

Downnload tracks: Belong, Even in Dreams, Strange