THE PRETTY THINGS

The Complete Studio Albums: 1965-2020 MADFISH

Thirteen priceless vinyls from always-the-bridesmaid rock chameleons.

The Pretty Things should have been far bigger than they actually were. Emerging from the early 60s R&B scene, guitarist Dick Taylor served as a founding Rolling Stone before bailing for art school. He was soon induced to form the Things by vocalist Phil May, who allegedly boasted ‘the longest hair in Britain’. The Things initially set out to rival the Stones, but were too outrageous for their own good.

And too impatient. When success as the gritty blues hooligans captured on eponymous 1965 debut (featuring awesome hit single Rosalyn) proved unsustainable, they embarked on a series of reinventions: some predictably of-their-time (the orchestrated soul of ’67’s Emotions); some influential (the following year’s psych essential S.F. Sorrow, the world’s first rock opera) and some, despite maintaining quality, outwardly desperate.

With the harmony-laced American radio-targeted Freeway Madness (’72), Zeppelin endorsed near-glam swagger of Swansong label duo Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye (1974 and 1976 respectively), and unlikely new wave stylings of Cross Talk (’80), The Pretty Things, with their revolving door cast list and persistent dearth of Stateside success, weren’t so much perceived as innovators as imitators and, in ’81, split.

In their absence, interest soared as the prog/psych community reassessed S.F. Sorrow and narrow-lapelled neo-mods rediscovered the ageless aggression of their earliest incarnation, and when the band resurfaced with Rage Before Beauty in 1999, they sounded assured and confident in who they were. They further re-embraced their blues roots on the punchy Balboa Island (’07) and hit late psych-focused form with the Sweet Pretty Things…

(’15) before bowing out gracefully with Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood’s visceral acoustic blues (’20).

For anyone who has previously overlooked the Things and are desirous of a new kind of kick, this nicely curated vinyl box is positively packed with half-forgotten, genre-fluid classics.