(Painbow Records, released Fri 1 Sep 2017)
Kip Berman is the singer/songwriter and driving force behind New York indie-pop band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The Echo of Pleasure is the band’s fourth album and their first on their very own Painbow Records. Berman has a knack for writing punchy and catchy pop songs and is continuing the tradition with this latest release.
Opening track My Only has all the melodies and pop choruses of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star at their most bright and breezy. It is a lush track that sets the uplifting mood and heart-warming tone of the album. First single Anymore is a forlorn love song with the bittersweet refrain “I wanted to die with you” echoing throughout. The track evokes Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era The Cure, making for a pop song with bite and a hidden darkness. When I Dance with you changes the pace slightly, with samples, beeps and beats replacing the indie guitars of the previous tracks. It is not so much a bittersweet love song, but an exuberant celebration of times shared with friends and lovers. Standout track is definitely So True which features Jen Goma (A Sunny Day in Glasgow) on vocals. Her voice lends itself well to Berman’s song-writing and the song is upbeat, buoyant and sits nicely towards the end of the album.
With The Echo of Pleasure, Berman is evolving the sound of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart to explore pop music and the result is an album that is surprising, touching and infused with uplifting music and melodies. The record makes the perfect soundtrack to a late summer’s evening when the sun is setting, but the party’s not winding down just yet. Final track Stay is a piano-led melancholic song that returns to the bittersweet lyrics and mood of previous tracks. The song gently builds and builds until it eventually reaches its conclusion and gracefully fades away. The Echo of Pleasure is nine tracks of pure pop pleasure that shows that Kip Berman knows how to write a song that can stick in your head and stay with you.