By now, our collective new wave nostalgia hangover should be staggering. But there's something about the way Boston trio Pretty & Nice re-imagine the playfully manic, barbed-wire sounds of Devo, XTC, and This Year's Model-era Elvis Costello. Their approach is so guileless and giddy, you'll get drunk on that spazzy, sneering sound all over again. Though the rousing, delightfully messy songs on their sophomore album (their first for Sub Pop affiliate Hardly Art) are neither pretty nor nice, they do show off some masterfully economical riffs and herky-jerky (if not outright dance-y) rhythms.Get Young, which clocks in under 28 minutes, swells with energy and amphetamine-addled pop hooks, making it hard to ignore and near impossible not to like.
More insistent and deliberately aggressive than the tunes they are modeled after, Get Young's tracks spit their muscular guitars out in percussive bursts, teasing listeners with a playful Jam-like melody or some flirty/flinty synthesized textures. But then, lest they sound too likeably pop, P&N wrap their songs in antagonistically tinny production that leaves them buzzy, muddy, and intentionally amateurish-sounding. Frontman Holden Lewis can't help that his reedy voice recalls Elvis Costello's (though he certainly could avoid the faux-British pronunciation), but it can make it hard to not see every song in light of the comparison. "Tora Tora Tora", with its choppy staccatos, sing-along chorus, and churning keyboards, admittedly owes more of a debt to the rhythmic weirdness of Devo. But the way that Lewis delivers his words, with that familiar demanding foghorn of a voice, he may as well be singing "Radio, Radio".
But Pretty & Nice modernize their sound with computer-age flourishes. Songs like "Hideaway Tokyo" and "Grab Your Nets" bury a bleeping Nintendo soundtrack underneath their breakneck rhythms and prickly guitars, as if the Attractions added a game of Tetris as their secret mechanical fourth member. And with their fuzzy, blown-speaker frequencies, the keyboards often recall the screaming feedback of Justice's synths rather than the hollowed out 1980s versions of their heroes. Likewise, "Peekaboo" is a nice surprise, breaking up the album's disorienting rhythms and shout-singing with its easy, dreamy pulse. On that track Lewis' wispy falsetto spills over thrifty guitar strumming and drummer Bobby Landry's gentle-heartbeat percussion. Pausing for such a break three songs into their throttling collection, Pretty & Nice give you just enough time to catch your breath and give into the reverberating loveliness before diving back into the fray at a pulse-racing pace.
It makes sense, then, that their album's title is a demand. It's not We Are Young or You Are Young or even Being Young; it's Get Young, the imperative. Pretty & Nice's songs challenge listeners to keep up with their blasts of catchy melody purposely obfuscated by noisy clatter or aggressive chugging. "Get with it," the collection seems to insist. "Give in, don't be such an adult!" Some who won't like Get Young are probably too grown up for its enchantingly juvenile thrill ride, but there's something to be said for taking the album's titular advice to heart. -Pitchforkmedia.com
02. Tora Tora Tora
03. Pixies
04. Peekaboo
05. Nuts & Bolts
06. Hideaway Tokyo
07. Grab Your Nets
08. Solar Energy
09. Gypsy
10. Wandering Eye
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