The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announces new album, The Echo of Pleasure, shares first single “Anymore,” plus updated tour dates

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announces new album, The Echo of Pleasure, shares first single “Anymore,” plus updated tour dates

STREAM: “Anymore” –
SoundCloud / Spotify / Pitchfork

Today the Pains of Being Pure at Heart announces its fourth album, The Echo of Pleasure, due July 14on the band’s own Painbow label – you can hear “Anymore,” the first single now and you can pre-order the album here in all formats. Limited edition (500 copies) gold metallic vinyl with gold foil stamped packaging available to pre-order  exclusively from the band’s website. The band has also announced extensive European and North American tour dates (see full list below).

Bio:
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have long set the benchmark for big-hearted, idealistic pop songs. With The Echo of Pleasure, The Pains push beyond their many inspirations and embrace their role as indiepop heroes in their own right. Showcasing the deft songwriting of frontman Kip Berman, The Pains’ fourth album is their most confident and accomplished. After three critically-acclaimed records, 2009’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 2011’s Belong and 2014’s Days of Abandon received praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The Guardian and Rolling Stone, they have put together a collection of songs that possess a timeless grandeur, deeper and more satisfying than anything the band has done since their iconic debut.

Berman enlisted Days of Abandon producer Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine, The Killers) to help him record a Pains record like none-other. “The logistics of it were so different. When I recorded the record, my wife was six months pregnant. We only had a limited amount of time. There was an absolute uncertainty hanging over our heads, but it was also a kind of escape from worry for that time,” he explains. “What’s going to happen when I have a kid? Am I going to be able to go on tour? Is this the last record I’m going to get to make? It’s not a bad thing to be worried when you’re expecting this huge transition of life. If you didn’t feel scared, you’re probably not feeling the right emotion. I tried to make the best record I could, knowing it might be the last time.”

The best moments on the album live in the space near fear but find comfort in the solace that follows giving into love. On the succulent cacophony of first single, “Anymore,” it’s the sweetly dark, double-edged resolution of “I couldn’t take anymore / I wanted to die with you.” Says Berman, “’Anymore’ is about a love that is extreme in its wonder and terror. ‘I wanted to die with you’ could mean either – and it probably means both.” 

The Echo of Pleasure navigates variability and safety without unraveling. Berman is no stranger to fragility; here, it’s structured with warmth, the kind found after life-altering moments. It’s reflected in the album title, too: “The Echo of Pleasure could be the near-symmetry of love,” he explains. “It’s the reflection back and forth, modulating over time, of two people who are together. It’s not a mirror – but a perpetual answering and asking. When one person is absent, that echo ceases or, as the title track laments, ‘fades into these silent days.’ In that sense, remembering is a kind of echo, each instance slightly less vivid than the one before.”

The record is augmented by guest vocals featuring previous Pains collaborators: Jen Goma on “So True” (A Sunny Day in Glasgow), bass guitar by Jacob Danish Sloan (Dream Diary), and horns by Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne, St. Vincent). The Pains of Being Pure at Heart live band consists of long-time guitarist Christoph Hochheim (Ablebody, ex-Depreciation Guild), bassist Jacob Danish Sloan, drummer Chris Schackerman (ex-Mercury Girls, ex-Literature) and vocalist/keyboardist Jess Rojas.  The band will tour the UK in late May, returning to New York for Northside Festival in June (see full list of dates below). The Echo of Pleasure arrives July 14.

TOUR DATES:

Wednesday, May 24 — Bristol, UK — Thekla @+
Thursday, May 25 — Manchester, UK — Night & Day Café @+
Saturday, May 27 — Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK — Think Tank? @+
Sunday, May 28 — Glasgow, UK — Stereo @+
Monday, May 29 — Leeds, UK — Brudenell @+
Tuesday, May 30 — London, UK — Oslo Hackney @+
Thursday, June 1 — Leicester, UK — The Cookie @
Friday, June 2 – Wolverhampton, UK — Newhampton Arts Centre @
Saturday, June 3 — Oxford, UK — The Cellar @
Thursday, June 8 — Hamden, CT — The Outer Space *#
Friday, June 9 — Brooklyn, NY — Music Hall of Williamsburg *#
Wednesday, June 14 — Boston, MA — The Sinclair *%
Thursday, June 15 — New Portsmouth, NH — 3S Artspace *%
Friday, June 16 — Montreal, Canada – Bar Le Ritz *%
Saturday, June 17 — Toronto, Canada — The Horseshoe Tavern *%
Monday, June 19 — Cleveland, OH — The Grog Shop *%
Tuesday, June 20 — Detroit, MI — El Club *%
Thursday, June 22 — Minneapolis, MN — 7th St Entry *^
Friday, June 23 — Madison, WI — High Noon Saloon  *^
Saturday, June 24 — Chicago, IL — Lincoln Hall  *^
Sunday, June 25 — St Louis, MO — The Firebird  *^
Tuesday, June 27 — Nashville, TN — The High Watt *^
Wednesday, June 28 — Atlanta, GA — The Earl  *^
Friday, June 30 — Chapel Hill, NC — Local 506 *^
Saturday, July 1 — Washington D.C. — Rock & Roll Hotel *^
Sunday, July 2 — Philadelphia, PA — World Cafe Live Downstairs *^
Friday, September 22 — Vancouver, BC — Biltmore Cabaret $&
Saturday, September 23 — Seattle, WA — Tractor Tavern $&
Sunday, September 24 — Portland, OR — Doug Fir Lounge $&
Tuesday, September 26 — San Francisco, CA — The Chapel $&
Wednesday, September 27 — Los Angeles, CA — Teragram Ballroom $&
Saturday, September 30 — San Diego, CA – The Loft $&
Sunday, October 15 — Madrid, Spain — Joy Slava
Monday, October 16 — Cordoba, Spain — Sala Hanger
Tuesday, October 17 — Granada, Spain — Lemon Rock
Thursday, October 19 — Valencia, Spain — La Rambleta
Friday, October 20 — Barcelona, Spain — Bikini
Saturday, October 21 — Santander, Spain — Escenario

* = w/ Ablebody
# = w/ Beverly
% = w/ Frankie Rose
^ = w/ Tony Molina
$ = w/ The Courtneys
& = w/ The Prids
@ = w/ Night Flowers
+ = w/ Yoke Lore

Pictured below: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by Ebru Yildiz