What does it sound like?:
Pretty Things are a ‘cult’ band, meaning they enjoyed little commercial success but attracted a loyal and fervent fan base. This year, their lead singer and lyric writer, Phil May, the only constant member through the decades, sadly lost his life, effectively ending the band as a going concern. This 50th anniversary edition of Parachute, their fifth album, serves as a fitting tribute.
Pretty Things began by playing ugly, unkempt rhythm and blues. Their debut is more than a match for The Rolling Stones’ for raw excitement, except for the fact it came out the following year. Early singles bothered the UK charts. They missed the wave of The British Invasion in America, spending much of 1965 touring the Southern Hemisphere, their drummer, Viv Prince, wreaking havoc wherever he went. They flirted a little with Soul (they even signed to a subsidiary of Tamla Motown) but the drugs Phil May started taking made him see himself as a sweet, sensitive poet, aspiring to be T.S. Eliot. Their sound became more psychedelic and they created the first Rock Opera, S.F. Sorrow, in 1968. Parachute, produced by Norman Smith in Abbey Road, is the follow up, » Continue Reading.