Album Review: The Pretty Reckless - "Death By Rock 'n' Roll"

 

Now into their second decade as a band and their fourth album, it's quite easy to be sceptical about the Pretty Reckless if you're unfamiliar with them. Let's face it, when you encounter a rock band fronted by a former Hollywood actress who appears to be posing on the album cover as a biker girl who's just realised that crucial five minutes after setting off out for the day that she forgot to put her trousers on this morning, you can't help but think "Oh aye, really?..."

That is until the opening title track promptly smacks you up the side of the head with a glorious riff which practically invites you to headbang along and Taylor Momsen (for it is she)'s supremely tuneful purr-turned-snarl vocals at which you think "Ah, fair enough, I may have been a bit harsh, I do apologise..." It's nothing you won't have heard before and the lyrics are pure 18 & Life era Skid Row but there's something about it that undeniably hits that bullseye with supreme ease.

The surprise is that they keep these standards up for the album as well. Sure, Death By Rock 'n' Roll has a fairly obvious set of touchstones but the key is that they're an impressively tight and focused band and Momsen has the pipes to really top their tunes off well. There's a bit of a grunge influence at play on the likes of Only Love Can Save Me Now and 25 (the former featuring Soundgarden's Kim Thayil and Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron) while And So It Went (featuring Tom Morello on guitar) takes a look at the Greta Thunberg-led climate change protests without coming across as cloying.

Although there's plenty to be said for the Evanescence-with-a-rocket-up-their-jacksy swoop of My Bones and the unexpectedly tender acoustic ballads Got So High and Standing At The Wall or the countrified Rock And Roll Heaven and Harley Darling, it's maybe telling that the Pretty Reckless sound best when they dig into the classic rock vein of the snarling feminist anthem Witches Burn and the bluesy '70s Heart-style stomp of Turning Gold.

It's very easy to be cynical about bands like the Pretty Reckless but quite simply what you have here is a good straight-up rock album with a singer with the sort of range and versatility that a lot of frontpeople would give their front teeth for. Rocket science it very much ain't but it knows that and plays to its strengths superbly. Quite simply, Death By Rock 'n' Roll is one of the unexpected triumphs of the year so far and I heartily recommend it.

Bandcamp link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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