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BAD FRIDAY!
Peluché,
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Flights of Helios,
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The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
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Single/Download Review

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Higher Than The Stars Fortuna Pop!

Article written by Ged M - Oct 29, 2009

After a meteoric but well-deserved rise, it’s great to see the Pains selling out London venues and making a big impression at festivals everywhere (and also on the ‘net: there were 56,400,000 searches on their name when I last googled them). The latest multi-format EP is beautifully produced 80s-sounding indiepop (Cath Carroll and, especially, the Field Mice spring to mind) that has enough bitterness and intimations of teenage passion to counteract the nostalgic sweetness that this sound engenders. ‘Higher Than The Stars’ is blissful dreampop with dark lyrics and ‘103’ is a full-on fuzz assault. The retro comes out in the 12” remixes where DJ Downfall tries to turn them into Yazoo and the remix by ‘Saint Etienne visits Lord Spank’, in truth the pick of the bunch, makes them sound like a discofied young Saint Etienne. 2009 is clearly an annus mirabilis for The Pains but it would be good to hear them move past 1989 now.

Links:
http://www.thepainsofbeingpureatheart.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart

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