Purity Ring’s leaked album does not disappoint

Canadian electro-pop duo Purity Ring is set to release their second album, “Another Eternity” via 4AD records. The U.S. iTunes release date is marked for March 3, but an advanced copy has already leaked to several music blogs.

Their first release, 2012’s “Shrines,” was one of my favorite albums (2012 was just a good year for music in general), and as soon as I heard the rumors about this release, I preordered both the iTunes and LP versions (the first 300 some pressings of which are reported to be on clear vinyl).

The band has released two singles so far; “Push Pull” and “Begin Again.”

“Push Pull” is a noticeable change to Megan James’s vocals; she receives a more prominent place in the mix, and Corin Roddick’s beats seem to mirror a lot of her melodies rather weaving back and forth between the bars.

“Begin Again” seems to return to previous form with brooding and massive Witchhouse-sounding synths, but James’s vocals on this track seem really pop-y, (I’ll probably kick myself later for this, but almost Taylor Swift-ish).

My curiosity got the better of me, however, I hunted down a copy of the leak to give it a listen (and to be fair, I did purchase two “copies” of the record, so it’s not like I was cheating the band out of revenue).

I wasn’t disappointed.

The opening track, “Heartsigh,” feels like the opening to a movie with glitch-step style beats. It has the same kind of sentimentality found on “Lofticries,” my favorite track from their first album.

The next track, “Bodyache,” is kind of rolling-chopped with flourishes that remind me of Ratatat’s beats on Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.”

“Repetition” was premiered on BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens show on Feb. 4. It feels like a somewhat cheesy slow-jam track, but I’m sure it will find takers in fans of that sort of thing.

“Stranger than Earth” is my favorite track of this new album. It features this weird stuttered syncopation in the breaks, with a tiny almost “scratched” snare hit. At the half-way mark in the song it turns into a tasteful EDM track; the bridge, “pity seek what we might lose; but in a week might our weakness elude,” sticks in my head even after the song is over.

“Dust Hymn” mixes trap-beats and Witchhouse synths, but the chorus gets annoying rather quickly. I do like the continuing use of claps, but I think the vocals were auto-tuned too much for my taste.

“Flood on the Floor” just “feels” like a Purity Ring song, as though it were recorded for their first record, but left off.  As with “Dust Hymn,” the chorus gets kind of repetitive, but it’s still one of the better songs on the album that I flagged on first listen.  I hope that first-listen charm doesn’t wear off for you.

“Sea Castle” seems like another cheesy slow-jam track. Again, if that’s your cup of tea, then it’ll resonate with you, but for me it’s just not that interesting.

The final track, “Stillness in Woe” is slow, feels almost as if it were a Sylvan Esso song, with Roddick’s signature manipulation of James’s vocals found during their live performances, specifically on the chorus lyric, “seein’ double.”

I try not to read other critics’s articles until after I write mine, but I stumbled upon New Music Express’s review and saw that they gave “Another Eternity “ a 7 out of 10. So, out of spite for NME, I’ll give it an 8.

It’s a fine record if you’re already a fan, but you should really sink your teeth into “Shrines” before giving this one a turn.