The Purity Ring

What do we think of these kids? I find myself thoroughly enjoying their record. They've got a groovy sound that's totally now.

I hear a strong Gram Parsons influence, clearly they've been listening to Grievous Angel.

Dig The Purity Ring, people!

Starting to grow on me whether I like it or not...liking it but hate how the songs get stuck in my head for several hours.

Listened to the album a few times today, this is what I wanted from Grimes and Crystal Castles.

The first few singles were excellent, they were surprisingly great when I saw them a year ago, and the album delivers, too.

I keep waiting for the whole thing to come apart at the seams, but so far it hasn't. In my opinion, at least.

I adore this album

Gram Parsons influence? Did he influence 90s r'n'b

Good album. Other electro pop fixates on 80s heyday, this couldn't exist prior to naughties UK bass music. Lyrically its all high school composition bood ruminations on body parts (skin, sternums, lungs, bones, teeth) and a disconcerting range of fluids. Which

Caveats: the highlights (besides "Fineshrine") are on the pre-4AD 2011 singles, and the singer's from the Clare Grogan/Alison Shaw lineage of lost little girls.

Is it worth seeing them live? the album is growing on me. which i thought was impossible.

Let me reedit that entire post again. Must be getting a migraine.

Good album. While other electro pop fixates on the genre's 80s heyday, this couldn't exist prior to naughties UK bass music. Lyrically its all high school composition book ruminations on body parts (skin, sternums, lungs, bellys, bones, teeth) and a disconcerting range of fluids. Which is refreshing, too.

Caveats: the highlights (besides "Fineshrine") are on the pre-4AD 2011 singles, and the singer veers close to the Clare Grogan / Alison Shaw lost little girl territory.

it's probably a stupid generalisation but i have the feeling a lot of young women artist are really into the body parts/fluids thing. not that i'm against that.

i feel like half the contemporary poetry i hear is like that.

I'd add "Crawlersout" and "Obedear" to the highlight list, personally

At first listen its a tubercular ward or delivery room, but from the lyrics its just sea water, blood, vinegar, tears, sebum, and sweat.

Every review of this I've read has had incredibly harsh things to say about "Grandloves", which strikes me a little like "EW GET THAT DUDE AWAY FROM MY DEPRESSED FAIRY PRINCESS" reactionism given the strength of the reaction; it's not my favorite song on the album but it's not like it's wholly out of step with the overall vibe or even particularly bad.

this album = the sound of side-chain compression

i just think the arrival of a male figure is a weird intrusion on this very secluded forest in which only our own "depressed fairy princess" (to quote DJP) exists, and it shatters the illusion of that world, the singer (from here in edmonton too i believe?) doesn't fit that beautiful-but-underneath-dangerous magical forest vibe at all

this album is one of the biggest surprises I had this year; it's semi-amazing to me how many times I came back to it

I am absolutely stuck on this record. Pretty much everything I wanted from this thread, but never got. As far as this latest generation of synthpop goes, this album is best-of-breed IMO. "Obedear" and "Fineshrines" are obvious favorites, but nothing on the album stands out as being out of place, not even "Grandloves."

I don't understand the hate for that track, as you can hear hints of the dude in the songs leading up to it. IDK if it's more like dude-as-bandmate or -producer or -counterpoint, or more like Timbaland on Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?" or post-XX influence, but it's not necessarily unexpected or unwelcome. Maybe because the album, and especially the vocals sound so "manipulated," that you're aware that it's a duo and bound to hear from the "manipulator" sooner or later.

Maybe I've had too much tonight, or maybe I just have more fun wondering whether the percussion in "Obedear" was bitten from Strafe's "Set it Off" or Snoop's "Drop it Like it's Hot" that other questions about the album pale in significance.

i find grimes' album far more enjoyable because there's more variety

obviously there are big differences between this album and that besides "variety" but the main detractor for me with shrines was that it was too cohesive

I actively despised that Grimes album.

the male voice isn't the producer guy, it's a sample of a song by another band that has a male singer

i'm not saying this was #1 on my ilx ballot or anything, but it was

oh shit: http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/163058/Purity%20Ring%20feat.%20Young%20Magic-Grandloves_Young%20Magic-You%20With%20Air/

#1 on my ilx ballot I AM NOT ALONE

#5 on mine

I should hear this bunch.

You should! Check out in particular "Fineshrine" and "Obedear"

xp I hated 'Grandloves' but could listen to the rest of Shrines on a continual loop for days on end.

The band remind me a lot of The Sundays. Obv different sounds involved, but that sense of innocent curiosity mixed up with faint dread...

xpost -- and having listened to those two, yeah not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qVAJBl8WTw

are u in that?

No :(

Not that I want to be in a boiler room video, but I wish I was there for that specific set.

yeah everyone lookin pretty lame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiV0RN0mPSk&feature=youtu.be

The teacher has become the student, because that sounds like a slowed-down CHVRCHES song.

As a fan of both, I enjoyed it. Def. more dense production-wise; everything sounds a bit more upfront. I appreciated the sparseness of their last album, and will have to give this one time.

This has to be the most surprisingly positive thread on ILM.

i think this new track may be my favorite thing they've put out so far

album streaming on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/26/387542930/first-listen-purity-ring-another-eternity

Highlights for me so far: Begin Again, Heartsigh, Dust Hymn, Push Pull, Stillness in Woe (in p much that order).

Hit rate much lower than Shrines, but still think I'll love it a good deal.

I'm liking this new one more than I expected. They manage to maintain their core vibe without leaning on the production tricks that were exhausted on Shrines.

My initial impression is that this album isn't as immediately pleasing as Shrines but is still great.

it just takes a couple songs to wake up, from the 4th track on it's bangin

So far it's a disappointment for me :( Shrines is so great, maybe my expectations were too high.

Eh, they've gone a bit to the cheesy side.

My appreciation of the album hinged on how much I instantly loved "Stranger Than Earth" and "Begin Again". I was entertained but not as immediately bowled over as I was b Shrines until I heard those two songs back to back; after that, I feel like I was in the right head space to dive into what this album was offering as opposed to wanting a direct copy of Shrines and subsequent playthroughs have made me enjoy the first half of the album a lot more (particularly "Bodyache" and "Push Pull").

yeah Begin Again is probably the best song they've made.

Kinda wish there was more of this coming from these two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SZ0gF7Fu0M

can't deal with this band at all, so dull.

i loved the first record but i think they may be a one-and-done band for me

Yes

Purity Ring used to be at least a little bit distinct in a class of bands that all sound roughly the same, but now they just sound like Chvrches with three times the electronics.

Sorry Purity Ring. We've moved on to other gauzy synthpop combos. We'll always have 2012.

I may just be tired, but I skimmed through the first few posts itt thinking it was about The Promise Ring.

I still dig both albums a ton

i do really like 'push pull' though so i will continue to give this a fair chance

They are playing 2 nights at Terminal 5 in NYC, a huge venue so people clearly still like them.

they sound exactly like the sort of band people would like but to me they're like a less good ellie goulding or something, to be honest.

if Ellie Goulding ever did anything in her music that made me imagine her pulling the wings off of dragonflies, I would find her more interesting

Good god, the new album is such a letdown. They basically killed everything that made them distinct and unique. RIP

Find it weird that the 2nd album is such a disappointment to people. IT's not like a stretch from their first one. I get that people might not like they're thing tho

yeah the new one is basically just more of the same, the only reason im not digging it as much as the 1st is the hooks aren't as strong to me

except for 'push pull' which i've been listening to a lot

New album suffers somewhat from diminishing returns but they are definitely sticking to their aesthetic plus one song is called “i love the devil”, so 👍🏾

That was my first impression too, but Rubyinsides and Peacefall are such great tracks that I wish the rest of the album would grow on further listening like the last two albums.

"rubyinsides" is fantastic, yeah

I'm also a big fan of "stardew"

Basically I played this about 6 times over the past 24 hours and liked it more each playthrough

I just listened to most of this without really noticing :(
Stardew is lovely though

It took five listens for me to get into it.

Need to give this more time, but my first impression is that it is more sonically bold than the last one.

I picked three songs off each album that I would use to introduce them to a new listener and put them all into a playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1GJ3Qp9Tq9lmx1rNP8umJE?si=MT3-XKzbS6OunR91LK3Myg

yeah so this album rules (shocking that I would come to this conclusion, I know)

Finally giving this a shot after being mostly let down by the second album, and this is fantastic.