The Pretty Things

Rage Before Beauty (V Entertainment)
by Jon Sarre

Maybe the fatigue started to kick in as these demi-legends launched in to Freedom Rock with “The Eve of Destruction” – they started to sound like Springsteen minus Little Stevie’s good time guitar and Clarence Clemons’ too loud sax, that was followed by the damn predictability of E-Street rust belt bar band-styled “Not Givin’ In” and the “Riders on the Storm” change-up of “Pure Cold Stone.”

Hey, I didn’t think I was listening to a revival act when I slid the re-formed Pretty Things disc in. The first cut, “Passion of Love,” comes off as the hardest shit I’ve ever heard from a buncha proto-Yardbirds my Dad’s age (if ya have no idea who these guys are, they were contemporaries of the Stones, Kinks, etc, just without the corporate sponsors). Billy Childish eat yer heart out! The second track, “Vivian Prince,” is the same way, all Bo Diddley downbeats with Eric Burden minor chordage, inspired by an ex-drummer who exists as a fat drunk in his home town nowadays. The Pretty Things throw in “Everlasting Flame” after that, sorta “19th Nervous Breakdown” meets “Paint It Black” with drummer Skip Allen approximating John Bonham’s primal flair for good measure.

The disc’s second half (what used to be “side 2”) finds the Things a bit more contemplative with the darkly pretties “Goodbye, Goodbye,” “Goin’ Downhill,” “Fly Away” and the old Jagger/Richards chestnut “Play With Fire” (PT guitarist Dick Taylor was the Stones bass player before Bill Wyman, don’t cha know). Just as things begin to get a bit too mawkish, however, Ronnie Spector shows up with too much makeup and a switchblade to help everyone out on a version of Tommy James’ “Mony Mony.” So much the better, cuz that breaks things up, making the album’s closer, “God Give Me the Strength (To Carry On),” into something just a wee bit springier than a power dirge. In fact, it’s damn near close to a hair-metal ballad, but let’s not dwell on that, shall we?
(www.theprettythings.com)