The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Slumberland isn't the band's only tie to this area; Archie Moore (of Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine) mixed the Pains' album, and his previous bands' sounds are certainly apparent here. But the Pains bear an even stronger resemblance to the shimmering pop of the bands on Sarah Records: The male-female vocals on "Everything With You" and the jangling chords of "A Teenager in Love" both sound like long-lost recordings of the Field Mice. The Pains' music may be a bit derivative, but their ability to capture the dreamy and carefree sounds of the twee-gaze era is nostalgia at its finest. -- Catherine P. Lewis
.: Originally published: The Washington Post: 6 February 2009, Page WE07
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