The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Higher Than the Stars

review by dave heaton

In my mind, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s debut LP was the 2009 indie-pop equivalent of the big pop sensation sweeping the nation – the music all the hip kids were grooving to at their record shops and soda fountains or whatever. At heart, their songs are shy, sweet, filled with strange emotions: all those classic indie-pop traits. The face of that side is the sound of their dreamy new single “Higher Than the Stars”. Still about young love, still swinging in the same way, but softly swooning with ample synthesizers. Synth makes it ideal for remixing, I guess, so there are three remixed versions of it here. The most exciting on paper bears St Etienne’s name, and it does have a nice mood to it, both slow-motion and moving, the way St. Etienne’s own dance music often sounds like train-ride or car-ride music. More danceclub-ready, my favorite remix of the four here is DJ Downfall’s take on “Falling Over”. He makes it an early Depeche Mode song, and a great one. It helps that the original song, one of the three other non-remixed songs on this 8-track EP, is already so infectious and memorable, with lyrics like, “I can’t understand what you’re doing with my hand on the longest day of the year”. A great expression of the gangly, embarrassed nature of love.

{www.slumberlandrecords.com}