album review
4 minute read time
Why I listened to this album
I’ve been listening to The Pretty Reckless since I first heard (and loved) the tracks My Medicine and Heaven Knows. I listened to all their albums, and they were my 5th most listened to artist on Spotify last year. I’m going to see them in December, and I love their sound, style and Taylor Momsen’s amazingly distinctive vocals! Safe to say, this album is both stunningly original, and true to their style.
The Album
This album has incredible cohesion and consistent sound. It absolutely struts, unapologetically exactly what it is. But there is still great variation – some songs streaking along in heavier, rock’n’roll glory, others taking their time to create a haunting, beautiful atmosphere, or build into a climax that does the build justice.
My standout tracks include the title track Dear God, that was released as a single but it’s six minutes have only got better with more listens. The instruments are stripped back in the verses, drums very prominent and creating a hypnotic, repetitive feeling that accentuates the vocals perfectly. It builds beautifully verse to chorus, then drops back down like a rollercoaster, making it a worthy title track for such a brilliant album!
Another track that was a standout to me was Spell On You. It has a lot of attitude, and continues the witchy themes from The Pretty Reckless’ other albums in a very fun way. The guitar riff during the chorus is very catchy, and another riff at the start really sets the scene for the coming track. I also love the vocal tone on the verses – the drawn out vowels at the end of each line are really satisfying, but have loads of variation so its never the same thing twice, making them all the better.
Eye Of The Storm. I love this track so much! Where to start? The first verse opens with the line ‘Everything has gone to hell’, which is simple, powerful, and repeats throughout the song. The low notes at the end of this verse are, I’m guessing, at the very bottom of Taylor’s vocal range, and create a very dark atmosphere as well as allowing that line to be technically too many syllables within the pattern of the song. The lyrics themselves are very emotive, possibly about Taylor’s mental health, I’m presuming, and the lies people tell to pretend they’re fine to everyone around them. The choruses are a great example of the build I mentioned before – with stripped back and intimate sounding verses to an expansive chorus that shows off Taylor’s quite unique sounding raspy edge in her higher range. The metaphor of ‘seeing through the eye of the storm’ is also a lyric I like, for its symbolism and the many ways it could be interperated.
The opening track For I Am Death, is an absolute rocker (I’m not counting Life Evermore Pt. 2 as the opening track, more a kind of prologue, and Pt. 3 as an interlude, Pt. 1 as an epilogue). But to me it feels a bit disconnected from the rest of the album – not in tone or it not matching the rest of the album, it does that – but because it was released so long ago, August last year, it felt like something different. I know it very well, as it was a firm favourite in my house when it was first released, and while all the other singles on the album still felt fresh and exciting, I guess For I Am Death doesn’t for me. So when I excitedly started listening to The Pretty Reckless’ new album, and was opened with something I know very well, it felt a bit anticlimactic. I do see why it was put first though – how can you not love that opening riff?
However, every track on this album is still absolutely amazing. In an interview, Taylor said that this album has been the most exciting for her to release, as it captures a lot of her personality and story, and “I just want to play it start to finish live!”. What more can I really say other than go listen to it! Once you have, what’s your favourite song from it? I’m really curious what other people think!
(Oh and stay tuned for my upcoming reviews on The Wow! Signal by Muse and Dehumanized by Bring Me The Horizon!)
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