The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - days of abandon

A softer more poppy more melodic sound is at the heart of the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's third album. Its still great and is a welcome evolution of sound though at times you do miss the sharper lower-fi edge of some of their earlier work...

...but not enough to not enjoy "Days of abandon" hugely. "Until the sun explodes" is euphoric, an uplifting pop blast and a bit Cure-ish at times. Stand out track is the beautiful "Kelly", a classic slice of melodic guitar pop. Single "Simple and sure" is joyous with a light life-affirming chorus. It has no fuzz but does have hand claps. Yay!

So the "difficult third album" isn't at all, POBPAH resisted falling back on old glories and set out on a different sound (a number of personnel changes no doubt had something to do with it). A dreamy pop album for the year and many more beyond it.