http://www.thefourohfive.com/review/article/purity-ring-another-eternity-142
When Shrines, the
debut album from Canadian duo Purity Ring came out in 2012, this idea that
indie music could be highly digitised and contain all the impulses and
immediacies of pop music whilst still sounding
indie barely existed. And it’s true, first album treated melody and phrasing in
such a distinct way that the term ‘sounds like purity ring’ became synonymous
with any new act who dared to write subtly intelligent, infectiously melodic
songs with glossy, meticulously programmed electronic sounds. If not exactly
inventive, Shrines was certainly impressive
in its singularity, which was refined and administered with a surgeon-like
precision.
You get the feeling that Purity Ring started to feel
suffocated by this specific and unambiguous aesthetic they have created for
themselves. When speaking about the writing process for this album,
instrumentalist Corin Roddick told Pitchfork: “It
was a tricky place to be in because, with a second album, we’re trying to evolve
and we wanna be new and exciting with whatever new music we’re releasing. But
we also have a fan base that likes us for the first album we put out”. The
statement almost sounded like an admission of defeat, and this notion of
stifling your creative ideas to cash the same cheque as before seems a little
sad – especially for a band only on their second album.
Another Eternity still sounds like Purity Ring, though, yet the
synths are louder, the bass thuds deeper, and the songs take a more traditional
structure where the verses are more defined and the choruses are bigger. This
approach to a sophomore album is certainly well versed – take everything that
worked before and just turn it all up. Whilst Shrines certainly wasn’t a minimal album, it showed restraint when
it was needed, isolating the hooks so that they resonated with maximum effect.
James’ vocals would be left to hang in the air; a wobbing bass pedal note would
be cut just at the right time. All these direct and compact parts would be
allowed to grow bigger and smaller, twisting and unfolding together like cogs
in some brilliant twentieth century machine. The glaring, screeching
synth repeated on ‘Flood On The Floor’, ‘Stranger Than Earth’, ‘Dust Hymn’ and
‘Begin Again’ sounds obvious and undeliberate, like simplified signposts for
the grandiose and the dramatic, aimed at that kind of festival tent, MDMA
tinged euphoria that comes with huge sound systems and bigger ‘drops’. This
maximalist approach to Another Eternity feels indirect and arbitrary, like a
child bashing away at his favourite sounds on a toy keyboard.
This regression is mirrored lyrically, too. ‘Cut out my
sternum and pull / My little ribs around you’, James sang on Shrines highlight Fineshrine, as she viscerally conveyed all the desperation and
abandon that comes with loving someone so much that it feels like an unhealthy,
frightening obsession. And there’s still little doubt that Roddick and James
are still brilliant at creating these gorgeous, balanced phrases: “You feared a
lonely death like a lake / leaves you alone in her deaths, she cries on
‘Bodyache’, or “You push and you pull
and tell yourself no / It’s like when you lie down the veins grow in slow” on
‘Push Pull’. The decision to write less autobiographically makes these sound
like empty shells, though, like a stunningly painted sculpture that is
completely hollow once you pierce its surface.
With Shrines,
Purity Ring sounded one step ahead of the popular music landscape, creating
these catchy, compact little songs that sounded just a little bit unfamiliar.
And whilst it may seem unfair to keep comparing Another Eternity to its
predecessor, it’s troubling to see a band who once revelled in their nuances
and their weirdness to completely dilute themselves like this. It’s possible
that they underestimated their audience, looking to connect with their more
immediate, primal pleasure centres using volume and excess rather than
intellectually. James and Roddick clearly have their sights set on mainstream
success, but are instead in danger of sounding like one of the many pretenders
that their first album spawned, rather than smart, subtly innovative band they
once were.
4/10
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