Pure X – Pleasure (2011) [Acephale] // Grade: A

Pure X (nee Pure Ecstacy) aren’t quite the technicolor rave their name suggests. The Austin three-piece seem to mean “ecstasy” at its most denotative: overwhelming happiness and/or an emotionally trancelike state, the sort of easy calm that blinds you with contentment. There’s a real Paisley Underground thing happening on Pleasure, shades of Opal and Mazzy Star, the laid-back jangle of it drowsy with so much heady, dusty atmosphere. Pure X recorded the entire album sans overdubs, which says a lot about their chops when you consider the layers: guitars twisting and wailing like a choir of strings, vocals crooning from across the room. The dreamiest dream pop performed joyously and without affectation.

But despite the ecstasy (and pleasure) of Pleasure, there’s a loneliness living near its heart. Pure X’s general mood may be focused on contentment, but it’s the kind of contentment you’re overly aware of, the sort you know is bound to end. The floating psych of “Heavy Air”, a clouded pop “Twisted Mirror,” the luminous and syrupy “Stuck Livin”—all of them feel as mournful as they do joyous. It makes the record a complicated, almost theraputic, listen; even if you’re not feeling wistful—even if you’ve never had that startling realization that someday, eventually and with age, doors will close for you—Pleasure stirs in your body the bittersweet satisfaction of being both happy and sad. It’s like the umame of emotions, you know, this thing that’s difficult to define and even more difficult to conjure with a couple guitars and some thick, heat-soaked atmosphere. So much of the Paisley Underground got there. Now Pure X have too—and with an album that begs to be heard (and reheard and reheard).

- Rue Sauvage