Pretty Suicide - Suicide Shot
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Cowbells, flash metal guitar riffs, and a hotsy-totsy blonde charmer up front – when Pretty Suicide copped a New York Loose song for their name, they meant it, baby. Unlike the legendary Loose, however, the Pretty ones eschew the blood-on-the-stage razor punk stuff for powerpop hooks and radio-friendly arena rock moves. Singer Courtney sounds like Pat Benatar, completely and irrevocably, so there’s no way out of the 80’s hard-pop comparisons, but hell, I still like runnin’ with the shadows of the night on occasion, ya know? At any rate, Court’s massive bluesy pipes are a sound to savor, soaring and powerful, and the perfect complement to the skull n’ bones crank and clang backing her up. Pretty Suicide still sound a lot poppier than I think they want to – kinda like a debutante slutting it up for a wild weekend in the big city – but I dunno if you’re allowed to shave points off the rock-o-meter for class and distinction, so I’m not gonna. Picks to click on this one include opener “Should of Said Goodbye” which sounds enough like a glam metal Scandal that I was waiting for the Bang, Bangs and the slutty cock rock swagger of “Do You Want It?”. It’s not all swagger and roar - “One Too Many Times” sounds like the Bangles, and “Keep this Feeling” borders on pop-ska, but hey, no one promised you a sound garden, Jack. However, if yer lookin’ for a gaggle of big, brash pop songs, this might just be the Shot yer looking for.
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