After falling in love with this band after hearing their self titled album early last year, I was very excited to hear more from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart since they had only released a 4 song EP since that first full length. Upon first hearing the band, I was immediately intrigued by their noisy, lo-fi, and obviously 80s post-punk inspired sound. With their soft, warm guitar playing and catchy love songs straight out of the diary of a 17 year old hopeless romantic protagonist from a Brat Pack film, this NYC band has proven to become one of my favorites.

“Belong”, the band’s second LP, is seemingly less accessible than their self-titled album, and especially their “High Than The Stars” EP upon first listen. But as you let the record grow on you, and listen to songs like “Even In Dreams”, and “My Terrible Friend”, you see that this record becomes extremely catchy, and much easier to accept as an overall outstanding album.

This album starts out absolutely fantastic, but unfortunately loses my attention for a few tracks. I feel like this record comes back around with the the track “Anne With An E”. Despite my moderate boredom with the first few tracks, the proceeding 6 tracks are what makes this album an honest keepsake. Definitely in my top 5 records of the year.