Purity Ring – Shrines

July 24, 2012 • 4AD Records

Never say nothing good can come out of dumb fads. Remember the whole witch house thing that was really popular with artsy underground artists back in 2008–2009? Okay, so I liked some of it, even if it was kind of silly. But finally something amazing has come out of that scene—Purity Ring's fantastic debut album. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd like at all but I can't stop listening to it.

In fact I think a pop shift was exactly what witch house needed; I always liked the production style but most bands were missing something. I guess that something was a really solid sense of melody and vocals to realize it. Shrines has catchy hook after catchy hook, and the vocals play off the synths and samples really well to bring everything together. Sure, those choruses can get a bit too saccharine for my tastes now and again, but on the other hand it's a nice contrast to the spacey, jittering, echoing production.

Speaking of which, the album has an incredibly consistent sound. With just a couple exceptions, each track is pretty much the same thing, which is great if you happen to like what they are doing. I do, and I think the over-consistency is a strong point on this album (which is rare for me to think), though I can completely understand it boring the pants off other people, especially those for whom the chintzy drum and synth programming is unappealing. But when unique elements come into play they stand out in a great way, such as the male vocals on "Grandloves", which are one of my favorite parts of the album.

And now I'll tear down everything I said with this: Purity Ring shouldn't have released this, and should have stayed a singles band instead. (Or an EPs band at best.) I love their music but Shrines can be hard to digest all at once (for reasons stated above). Most of these songs are strong enough to stand on their own (something they've already demonstrated); the weaker ones don't bring anything extra to the album format and the overall flow isn't terribly good.

Regardless, I am still probably gonna keep this one in rotation for a long time. I'm not sure if it has any more staying power than the mostly-forgettable witch house from whence it came, but time will tell. If nothing else, best ethereal pop album of 2012 for sure, am I right?

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