puressence: c/d

Maybe for that reason I tend to prefer the first album, which is more overtly goth and shares with early Disco Inferno that nice Joy Division-meets-Durutti Column trembling guitar sound. Plus the sheer oddness of the singer's vocal melodies on the first album tends to negate the increasing disinterest I feel towards high-pitched male indie warblers.

New album out (finally!) called Don't Forget To Remember. They still hit the emotional highs and lows that make me love them, great guitar band (who seem to be an endangered species).

Damnit I still have not checked out this band yet and I keep on meaning to, I even saw an ad for this.

i was pretty disappointed by the third album when i first heard it, but pulled it out recently and totally enjoyed it. still huge in greece i see. i will be checking out the newie..

So disappointed by the third album when I first heard it that I don't think I have it anymore.

What, _Planet Helpless_? That was great! I mean, their sonic palette doesn't really change from album to album - the first is a bit more shoegazey, the recent ones a bit more indie rock. But it's all centered around the emotional vocal delivery and build-up. Great hooks!

"the recent ones a bit more indie rock"

QED

I was gonna say -- "How Not to Entice Tim F"

"They're a *real* rock band now!"

It's funny though how I really really liked Only Forever and Geneva's Further (which I associate together in my head) - this was like the last time maybe that I liked anthemic UK-ish indie (give or take Without You I'm Nothing, which falls in a different category perhaps).

I think something broke when I heard Manic Street Preachers' "The Everlasting". Suddenly this kind of music didn't seem so sustainable or supportable anymore.

biggest rip off of Puressence

Your Vegas
http://www.myspace.com/yourvegas

cripes

lyrics are stupid, band looks like fuckwits

They are on tour with Duran Duran at the mo. I have never heard of the before today. They are a Leeds band, currently based in New York City, who are signed to a US major label - Universal Republic - that doesn't promote their music in the UK. All rather strange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_vegas

finally got around to hearing the fourth album, two years late. the lyrics are the most uninspired, cliched dross i've heard in ages and the tunes do little more than cannibalise their earlier songs. wish i'd never heard it.

Sad. They were such an unusual band when they started, I think.

It disturbs me somewhat that I waxed nostalgic over liking Puressence at the start of this thread, and yet more time has passed since this thread was made than between then and when the band's debut came out.

I dig these guys, odd vocals and all. I don't find the lyrics particularly troublesome - in fact, some I quite like (e.g. "Sight Unseen"). It's true they've picked a sound and built albums of variations, but I *like* that sound - anthemic, bombastic, guitar-driven, though not as simplistic Coldplay or Keene. Not an all-time great but a fun band to indulge in now and again.

This Feeling: classic. Everything else: er, how did it go again?

Whoa, deeply unfortunate 1998 video. With Jenga cameo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gil_3V9pGAE

That said this is the song that keeps coming to mind the most for me, something about the chorus. Tim's assessment upthread pretty much calls it still.

great song, there's a very fleetwood mac-ish quality to the harmonies in the chorus..

So out of nowhere I finally find a copy of the first album used at Amoeba for a buck. (I'd had a few songs but not the full thing.) Now to listen to it at some point...

surprised i am nowhere on this thread. i loved that record so much. gonna have to pull it out.

I don't know if I'd rate them classic, but I did love the first two records. I do remember thinking at the time that "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" could've been a big hit if anyone heard it. Whoever mentioned associating them with Geneva above, ditto -- along with those two I was also listening to a lot of Marion and Strangelove at the time.

I did pick up the 3rd and 4th albums when they came out but can't really recall either. I was surprised to see just now that they released a 5th in 2011 -- anyone heard that one?

i reckon the third album was still pretty good, i can bring to mind most of the tracks just from seeing the title. i got off the bus with the fourth, it felt weak musically and was appalling lyrically

I have "Solid State Recital" but can't bring it to mind - honestly, if you like one of their albums you'll probably like them all, they don't vary the template all that much. The fourth one, "Don't Forget To Remember" is excellent. There was a best-of that came out and their website doesn't exist anymore - I suspect they're done.

Jim - I'm surprised you think the 4th album was lyrically poor, they were never the best songwriters in that respect but I find stuff like "Sold Unseen" quite solid.

"Traffic Jam in Memory Lane" . Great goosebump song for me

i'd need to go back and listen harder but i remember my immediate negative reaction to the lyrics, which previously i never thought amazing but never found jarring

Oh dang they’re back!

https://bsky.app/profile/puressence.bsky.social/post/3lxoqcn6nds26

https://puressenceofficial.com

James released 3 singles with The Nihilists which are pretty good.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/5662066-Nihilists-2