Album Review: Purity Ring – another eternity
2 min read
Purity Ring are one of many synth-pop bands with light voiced singers—BROODS, CHVRCHES, iamamiwhoami, etc.—to appear recently, yet they’re also one of the most unique. Their self-coined brand of futurepop on their 2012 album Shrines won over fans and critics alike, and left many waiting eagerly for more. Now, the time has finally come for their latest album another eternity to enthral us all over again.
another eternity is more of a continuation of Shrines than an evolution, featuring similarly glacial trap-inspired beats and bass lines with enchanting effects strewn on top. Add Megan’s fragile voice, and the songs gain an element of innocence that works with the personal and poetic lyrics, working together to convey the band’s trademark ethereal sound.
Despite being a pop duo from the beginning, another eternity takes this to the next level in its production. The album features a bright spark that was missing in Shrines, and the dark claustrophobia it carried is traded in for an expansive and light sound. In turn, this helps to enhance the pop elements of their music. The slow groove of repetition would easily fit on the radio with numerous other pop songs, the chorus in particular being an example of the souped up hooks featured on the album.
The first single push pull embodies this shift even more, replacing the feeling of doom in repetition with a shining array of effects that make it even friendlier for a general public. Nevertheless, the album manages to retain the Purity Ring essence thanks to the poetic style of writing alongside Megan’s pure voice. With similarly infectious and bright songs such as heartsigh and bodyache joining these, it’s an industry takeover just waiting to happen.
Despite truly shining in the first half, the album falters slightly within the last three tracks. The main offender is flood on the floor, with its abrupt shift into using a jarring beat almost ready made for a hip hop song rather than their style of synth-pop. It’s doubly unfortunate as this sudden shift precedes and magnifies the issues in sea castle. Despite not being a bad song, sea castle features its own jarring moment in the chorus, where the dark buzzing synth contrasts just a little too much with the solemn piano verses. Thankfully, stillness in woe returns the album to form before it ends.
Still, with only two songs out of ten falling short, the album comes off as a triumph. heartsigh, bodyache and repetition will be on repeat for a long time to come, and five of the remaining seven tracks are easy to lose yourself in as you play the album over and over again. Between the inspired production, delicate vocals and creative lyricism, another eternity is an early highlight for the year and a true achievement for Purity Ring.
