Pure X “Things in My Head”

14 Feb 2013 — Trey Reis

I haven’t heard acoustic guitars played over walls of distorted noise like this since that "Sometimes" song on Loveless. Not that it’s a common thing. Thankfully. Because every time it is done, it’s done right.

Austin’s Pure X has been pretty quiet since their album Pleasure, which hit summer of 2011 hard with a take on the dark side of that reverb/distortion wall when everyone seemed to be exploring its brighter side. This time, "Things in My Head" is reaching us, fittingly, in the middle of winter, and it certainly has a coldness to it. It’s like the whole song feels like something is missing while managing to sound absolutely complete. Maybe it’s the singing. Or the patient tempo. Or the guitars that have nowhere to be. Either way, it’s the kind of playing around with sound space that Pure X perfected early on. We’ll find out where they’ve taken it when forthcoming LP Crawling Up the Stairs is released via Acéphale and Merok on May 14.