Search - Pretty and Twisted :: Pretty & Twisted

Underrated - and what a great name for a band

Rich Latta | Albuquerque, NM - Land of Entitlement | 12/31/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While listening to this album after I decided to review it (simply for the sake of writing), I decided it's much better than I previously gave it credit for. That's mainly because I was totally knocked out by the first 2 tracks and always wanted to hear those.



"The Highs Are Too High" ("and the lows are way too low") has a dark, filmnoir-ish vibe. It's got plenty of Marc Mooreland's feedback-laden guitar turns which add much to the atmosphere - the man can make some noise! He does so on nearly every song, too. The title of this song is actually a good description of the album which has enough highs and lows for a roller-coaster.



The downer songs ("Souvenir," "Train Song," "Don't Take Me Down" - great guitar on that last one) are good but it helps to be in the mood for 'em. I don't care for "Ride!" or "Stranger," but "No Daddy No" and "Dear Marlon Brando" are downright embarrassing. Attn. Marlon Brando fanclub: "Dear Marlon Brando" should be your official theme song. The music's not bad, really, it's just . . . so gushing.



My other favorite is their version of Roxy Music's "Mother of Pearl" which actually eclipses the original. Mooreland's noisy, jangly guitar combined with Johnette Napolitano's rumbling bass are exquisite. That and other touches such as orchestral bells really take this one to high places.



The rest of the songs are very good. In particular, P&T add some great music to a poem by Charles Bukowski - "Singing is Fire" - and Johnette adds a scorching, heartfelt vocal to these passionate, naked words. She also makes a song out of Janis Joplin's poem "Come Away With Me." This one really soars - hangliding must feel like this.



Previously I would have given this album 3 stars, but the good songs are great enough to elevate the rating."

Not Concrete Blonde, but good stuff.

H3@+h | VT | 03/04/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This was the new group from former Concrete Blonde singer Johnette Napolitano. Released in 1995, it also came out the same year as her "Vowel Movement" project. Both bands turned out to be a one-time thing. So, naturally, this sounds similiar to CB and VM, but closer to CB. This does contain a Roxy Music cover, and a song with Paul Westerberg. Johnette does her typical great job, and the music is mostly good. Though this and VM are out of print, I would definitely check it out if your a fan of CB, and found it used somewhere."

A prize for Johnette Napolitano completists

E. Kutinsky | Seattle, WA | 06/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's a shame that Pretty & Twisted is out of print now - after ten years, the album, while never as good as any of the preceding Concrete Blonde albums Naplitano made, is smart, fun, occasionally moving, occasionally thudding, but always ripe with ideas and intrigue. Pretty & Twisted were a sort of bongos-and-synthesizer take on the more bluesy Concrete Blonde, but that never stops Napolitano's always-magnificent voice from being fully invested in the project, and filling it with enough CB-esque tropes to not be too surprising (there's even a requisite Roxy Music cover - a great one). "Dear Marlon Brando," obsequious as it is, is a charming pop lullaby of great finesse, "The Highs are Too High" gives such good atmosphere it wound up being used on a Sopranos episode, and "Watching the Water" is such a moving ballad, even the synthesizers that wreak of the early 90's can't keep it from connecting. Pound for pound, Pretty & Twisted is a bit scattershot, but still stronger than the renewed Concrete Blonde effort Group Therapy, and it's occasionally so full of great songs, it deserves a full scale reissue."