Don’t be fooled by a name. There is nothing straightforward about Boston trio Pretty & Nice, even if their moniker does describe their sound perfectly. In the half-decade since their last album, the band has shed its art-influenced sounds for a more refined, pop affair. With a handful of friends making cameo appearances, the sounds here traverse chamber pop,\u00a0 electronica, surf-rock and power pop, all while shunning traditional song structure. <\/p>\n
Opening track \u201cStallion & Mare\u201d brings us back into the familiar harmonies of Pretty & Nice with a lo-fi feel, but soon bursts into a fuller sound that lets us know this is a stronger, bolder version of what we’re accustomed to. Later on \u201cQ_Q\u201d shows a more New Wave, quirky side of the band, and \u201cCritters\u201d does a near 180 halfway through, changing tempo and style completely almost like a jam band. Though the band is well versed in writing melodies, they employ lots of noisy moments as well, with \u201cNew Czar\u201d finding a nice balance between the two with vocal effects. \u201cYonkers,\u201d on the other hand, sides more with the universally applauded melodic pop formula, complete with memorable choruses. <\/p>\n
While most of us thought Pretty & Nice were on the brink of semi-stardom following their 2008 album Get Young,<\/i> here they reaffirm themselves as legitimate heavyweights in the indie-rock world. Upping the ante considerably, Golden Rules For Golden People <\/i>is a power-pop album that takes from so many different genres that it might on paper sound like a cluttered mess and disjointed as hell, but unfolds like an adventurous, glorious listen. <\/p>\n
Though comparisons aren’t that helpful with an album this hard to pinpoint, The Shins and Saves The Day both came to mind here, the latter mostly in the singing. A triumphant return indeed, expect Golden Rules For Golden People<\/i> to surface on many year-end top ten lists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":31532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9176],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43235","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pretty-nice","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43235","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43235"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}