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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have long set the benchmark for big-hearted, idealistic pop songs. With The Echo of Pleasure, The Pains push beyond their many inspirations and embrace their role as indiepop heroes in their own right. Showcasing the deft songwriting of frontman Kip Berman, The Pains' fourth album is their most confident and accomplished. After three critically-acclaimed records, 2009's The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 2011's Belong and 2014's Days of Abandon received praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The Guardian and Rolling Stone, they have put together a collection of songs that possess a timeless grandeur, deeper and more satisfying than anything the band has done since their iconic debut.

It's an album that reflects the band's most joyous moments while maintaining Berman's candid and critical lyricism, free of the self-abasing insecurity of youth. "The album is loving. The music is heavier, more expansive," he says. "To me, songs about love shouldn't be thought of as light. Love is big- sometimes it's emphatic, overwhelming or simple - other times it's tense, anxious or just exhausting. But at its best, it makes you want to be something better."description from www.roughtrade.com