The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The debut offering from New York's buzzed to the stars indie outfit The Pains of Being Pure at Heart raises an interesting question: Is it fair to slight a band for their derivative tendencies if they're, well, good?

If the band's self titled Slumberland debut proves anything, it's that it knows how to pick its spots. The opening chords to "Contender," muddled in distortion yet invariably sweet in its own raucous way, immediately show the band's hand, conjuring instant comparisons to shoegazer staples Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine and C86 staples such as the Field Mice and the Wedding Present, among others. There's literally nothing on the record that doesn't work off of a well laid template, but the end result is thoughtfully produced set of 10 songs that leave a strong impression. In a digital age where music comes and goes so fast, that's success in and of itself.

Timing, perhaps more than anything, is the Pains' saving grace. With "indie rock" still going strong in mainstream circles almost five years after its initial break through the surface, there's a swelling market for the band's jangling noise pop, and the band is smart enough to take cues from the masters. And with My Bloody Valentine coming out of hiding for the first time in over 16 years, the Pains' sound, which out of context would barely register as little more than an audible clusterfuck, is put into sharp focus. If nothing else they keep good company.

So back to the songs. The band sticks suffocatingly close to the formula of shredding guitars and feedback, calling to mind a time when indie was indie, before it was a brand and was just earnest music bravely skirting the fringes of pop music. The Pains lay a goose egg in terms of ingenuity, but they successfully recreated the sounds of a timeless era of early indie rock, and that should prove good enough for most.