Purity Ring’s self-titled fourth album marks the beginning of a bold new chapter as the band’s most immersive release to date. Long known for their fusion of body horror imagery and ethereal electronics, the duo now shift their focus from the physical to the fantastical, crafting a concept album that serves as the soundtrack to an imagined RPG. Inspired by games like Nier Automata and Final Fantasy X, the record tells the story of two hapless characters — embodiments of mj and Corin — on a journey to build a kinder world amid the ruins of a broken one. But this is no escapist fantasy: it is the first step of forbidden dreaming, of imagining a place where the vulnerable are heeded, where grief is spoken aloud and held collectively, where family is a verb rather than a noun, where hope and home can bloom together.
