The slow, stoned, screwed traits of Purity Ring’s debut may have snagged the ear of the hip-hop left field such as Danny Brown, Ab-Soul and Angel Haze, but the Canadian duo gun for teen pop and EDM on their second. However, such is their ability to mutate the qualities of the current top 10 that you almost wish vocalist Megan James and producer Corin Roddick would donate their productions to chart behemoths in need of an indie crossover single, rather than creating an average alt-pop hybrid themselves. In Purity Ring’s hands, it’s a sober take on structures that should be joyous and ebullient, from Stranger Than Earth’s euro-trance synths, to the skewered Skrillex-indebted Flood on the Floor or the Disney cuteness of Push Pull. In replacing their alien atmospheres with something a little more immediate, they’ve lost what was initially inviting to those other artists: they were outsiders, capable of great oddities and darkness.
