Surprise confession: I might not be the most qualified person to
\nwrite this review, seeing my entire knowledge of Phil May and The
\nPretty Things now consists of two albums. Originally, I had planned
\non reviewing
\nGet The Picture<\/i>, the second release from this seminal
\nBritish blues outfit, but decided (with a little nudging from the
\nright people – hi, Veronique!) to check out their first release in
\nyears (and a reunion of sorts, bringing back the core of the lineup
\nfrom their
\nS.F. Sorrow<\/i> album).<\/p>\n
In a sense, things worked out better this way. Listening to the
\ngroup’s debut album and hearing their uncanny similarity to the
\nRolling Stones provided an interesting reference point for
\nRage Before Beauty<\/i>. Where the first album featured a band
\nthat was rough around the edges and had a sound that matched, this
\nalbum features an older, wiser band with a sound that has been
\ntightly knit.<\/p>\n
The years have been kind to May and crew. May’s voice now has a
\nrichness that echoes throughout this album, and the musical
\ninterplay between the veterans – May, guitarist Dick Taylor (who
\nwas once a member of the Rolling Stones), keyboardist John Povey,
\nbassist Wally Walter and drummer Skip Allen – shows that the band
\nhas become as tight as the competing band that came from that era
\nin British music. (Guitarist Frank Holland rounds out the
\ncrew.)<\/p>\n
Tracks like “Passion Of Love,” “Blue Turns To Red,” “Goodbye
\nGoodbye” and “Fly Away” all show the listener that The Pretty
\nThings are back with a vengeance, and that they are still musically
\nimportant in this day and age. With the help of friends like Pink
\nFloyd’s David Gilmour (on “Love Keeps Hanging On”) and Ronnie
\nSpector (on “Mony Mony”),
\nRage Before Beauty<\/i> quickly becomes a must-hear album.
\nThere’s even a bit of humor in the memories, as heard in “Vivian
\nPrince,” a tribute to the first drummer for the band.<\/p>\n
But it’s at the end of the album, with the gospel-tinged “God
\nGive Me The Strength (To Carry On)” that the soul of The Pretty
\nThings is laid bare. May pours his all into the vocals of this
\nsong, exposing every raw nerve that he’s suffered over the course
\nof 30-odd years. It’s a powerful song, and the perfect way to close
\nthis album.<\/p>\n
I do question, though, the reliance on cover tunes. Sure, with
\nTaylor’s past with the Stones, I can understand them choosing a
\ncover song like “Play With Fire”. But two other tracks, “Mony Mony”
\nand “Eve Of Destruction,” I don’t quite understand. May proves
\noften enough that he’s more than capable of writing a killer track;
\nwhy the band would choose to make three of the album’s 14 tracks
\ncover songs is a mystery.<\/p>\n
While today’s listener can still pick up
\nRage Before Beauty<\/i> without having heard any of The Pretty
\nThings’s discography prior and enjoy this disc, it still helps to
\nhave heard at least one disc from the band’s early days. It helps
\nto show how much this band has grown – and matured – since the
\nstart, and it makes you appreciate
\nRage Before Beauty<\/i> that much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7303],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38988","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-pretty-things","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38988"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38988"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}