by David Wilikofsky
With their new self titled album, Pure X make a roaring comeback. The last missive from the Austin, Texas based band was Angel. Released in 2016, the sound of that album was crisp and clear; every guitar pluck or drum beat felt precisely placed, with songs drifting by at a languid pace. With their newest album, Pure X keep the tempo the same but let a bit of chaos into their songs.
The difference in approach is evident from the opening moments of the album. “Middle America” starts off with forty seconds of distorted, crunchy guitar. The narrator finds themself stranded somewhere in the heartland of America, losing touch with themself and who they used to be. At the end of the song, they resolve to leave and go home. The lyrics may be specific, but the feeling is universal. One day you wake up and don’t recognize the person staring back in the mirror. The guitars churn around vocalist Nate Grace, perfectly accentuating the emotional tumult of the lyrics. It’s three minutes of fuzzed out bliss.
Although other tracks take a similar approach (highlight “Fantasy” is another place this works to great effect) the album has softer moments. However, even in these moments the band lets go. A track like “Making History” echoes the tranquility of the band’s earlier output by playing with the same sounds and tempos, but lets the instruments bleed into one another to create washes of sound rather than precise melodies. There is still a sense of chaos (however restrained it may be) in these more subdued moments.
Listened to as a whole, there is a natural push and pull to the album. One minute it will swallow you up in a storm of sound, and let you see the beauty after the storm in the next. Through it all the album is nothing less than engaging; it’s the kind of album I might listen to in a loop on a warm summer day, watching the clouds float by slowly. This is music that lives up to Pure X’s reputation and opens an exciting new chapter in their history. After four years away, they’ve managed to return better than ever.