Movie In My Head: Purity Ring's Cinematic Second Album

Purity Ring

It's been a few years since I reviewed Canada's Purity Ring's first album.  Since then, they have entered the pantheon of my favorite bands.  "Shrines" has been become one of my all-time preferred electronic albums, and this band is so worthy of the 4AD label that they belong to.  Remarkably, their second album, last year's "another eternity" is even better.

As a teenager, when I used to listen to the bands on 4AD, I used to let the broad scope of the music draw me into daydreams.  I would let the music create dreamlike images in my head.  Purity Ring does this for me as well.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill electronica.  Yes, it is trip hop.  Yes, it is witch house.  Yes, it is synthpop.  Yes, it is dream pop.  But it is much more than that.  There is a bravado about their music, a cinematic sweep, a bellicose grandeur that is impossible to ignore.  They ignore traditional song arrangements.  The beat is off-kilter and staggering, deliberately slow.  Last review, I mentioned "a slow jam on acid", and that comparison still holds true.  The synth arrangements are orchestral and panoramic, often building up to tantalizing pitches.  And once more, Megan James' voice is clear, sweet and morose, silver lyrics spilling from her tongue, Her lyrics are stark and personal.  This is far from club music.  This is poetic music set to poetry.  Like in the song "begin again":

"You be the moon I'll be the earth

And when we burst

Start over oh darling

Begin again

My moon oh my moon

Not even into

Another eternity

Will you stop your lovely orbiting

I had held it a world away

Until my body began to say

I need not one thing more

Oh wrap the ground around

Your gentle winding mind

Oh guard the pounding sound

Breathe in your fiery air"

And that's just one example.  The whole album is lyrical.

The album starts out "heartsigh" giving way to a slow beat and sweet vocals, building up to pictorial crests of music.  "bodyache" combines tinkling piano keys with a dense bass beat.  "push pull" combines hopeful music with bleak lyrics like:

"There was no light and I swear

I could see the roaring fear

I heard the plains moaning back

I saw the thunder roll o'er black"

"repetition" is honeyed, golden, and nostalgic, the vocal melody looming over the music.  "stranger the earth" is stripped down to an earthquake bass thrum with voice.  "begin again" is one of my favorites, shimmering and melancholic.  "dust hymn" has intense, insistent celestial chimes.  "flood

on the floor" is another favorite, one that seems to make it onto most of my mixes.  Heavy drum beat, heavy reverb on vocals with expansive synths.  "sea castle" has soft piano with heavenly layers of sound, James' voice having a cabaret quality until it builds up in force.  The album ends beautifully with "stillness in woe" is incredibly sad, a hushed symphony giving a way to pulsing synths like a light wash of rain, with exquisite lyrics:

"Don't be afraid if it's a little but close

I built a kingdom of your throats, I'm seeing double

Don't be afraid if there's no wind in my hair

There's a stillness left in there, I'm seeing double"

I really don't understand why I am not hearing more about this band out there.  They are truly innovative, artistic, and unique.  When I look for music, I look for bands just like this that move something inside of me,  Oh well.  They can stay hidden as far as I am concerned.  They can be the private movie in my head.