Purity Ring – Another Eternity
Rating: 74/100
Released: March 3, 2015

The world needs more bands like Purity Ring. They make alt-EDM for indie kids who need a little substance with their drops and the alternative version is almost always more interesting than the original. I’m not a fan of country music but alt-country artists like Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket and Wilco are my jam. Just like those acts are able to take the key components of country music and stir them into something new and interesting, on their second album Another Eternity, Purity Ring takes the big synth saws, bone rattling bass and drops of EDM and trap and create something enjoyable and substantive. In the same way I see rap artists disconnected from their beats, EDM artists suffer a similar distance from their vocal samples or guest singers. In both scenarios, one part of the song is carefully crafted and the other part seems entirely interchangeable. It seems weird to give bonus points to musicians who write their own music and lyrics but I guess thats just the world we live in. Purity Ring delivers on both sides of the equation in a way that can lead their EDM leaning fans to wanting more out of electronic music. It’s refreshing to hear a human voice, not a sample paired with synth stabs and drops.

Purity Ring strike me almost like a post-dubstep Postal Service or Phantogram without guitars. Their lyrics are filled with longing and heartbreak and all that fun stuff that indie music fans love but they make it fit along side all the contemporary fixings of big electronic music. And Another Eternity is huge. Especially on album highlights “Stranger Than Earth” and “Bodyache”, the sound is massive but the delicate vocals of Megan James keep the sound grounded and personal.

Another Eternity isn’t a masterpiece by any measure but it is a living breathing electronic album and that is something to be celebrated.

Top Tracks: “Begin Again”, “Bodyache”, “Stranger Than Earth”