Pretty Wild
s/t

It was a while ago but I did review Pretty Wild in 2009 when their debut album was released, it was a fairly bland thing that tried to emulate something from the past. Now they are back with their second album, older and wiser perhaps. Although, when looking at the album cover it is hard to believe that their affinity for past glories has dissipated enough for them to shine a bit more. Never judge a book by its cover though, I have given this album quite a few spins now and I can conclude that it is an improvement upon the last album.

Nevertheless, it is still an album that makes you think of past greats and their achievements rather than on what you are listening to. The creative part does not quite seem to favour these guys. It sounds as something out of the eighties, almost like they were something from that era time-machined to our era. With a slightly better production it is easy to note that it is a modern emulation rather than the authentic thing. The album feels made to measure, tailor made to suit the man born in the 60s or early 70s with it’s eighties glammy arena rock style. If you want you can spit names like Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Posion, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake and more like them. While most of these guys have moved on to more modern pastures, these guys seem to start at the same location albeit several decades later. I am not that impressed by that to be fair.

Neither am I impressed by the variation which is just the standard one with catchy songs as the prevailing thing, throw in a few ballads and some stuff for the big arena and you have exactly what you hear. It offers no surprises whatsoever during the fourteen tracks, other than maybe the quality of the band’s singer who sounds a lot better now than he did last time around.

Honestly, this album is a shrug of the shoulders or a “hmmm” nothing to write home about I would say. In its best moments it is great but those best moments are fairly few and far between, fifty two minutes is too much as well. Quite a bland thing which other reviewers suggest where the ones I found was on or below the ratings they generally give albums they don’t quite like. Therefore it seems I am not alone in thinking that this could have been better.

The ballads are the songs I like the best, especially High Enough even though it is a sense of déjà vu all the way through, the melody is very familiar for some reason. The fact is that the entire album is very familiar and you come to think of those who pioneered this kind of music rather than listen to what you get. We have heard it all before and it has been better made before as well.

It will probably work brilliantly on radio stations with an older targeted audience and for the ones wanting their music nostalgic but to most of us I think that unfortunately it is another fairly pointless and bland album by these guys. They sound like they are skilled musicians and the singer is very good so I am sure that they can put together something really good one day, that day is unfortunately quite far away today.

HHHHHHH