The Pretty Things - Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood (2020)

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The Pretty Things - Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood (2020)

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The acoustic and gritty Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood is the remarkable and unexpected 2020 album by The Pretty Things, who remained the tainted, dark Rock royalty they always were until the very end.

The 15th May 2020 marked the death of Phil May, the legendary lead singer with The Pretty Things.

At the time of his death, Phil was hugely excited about the impending release of the first-ever, all-acoustic Pretty Things album, which had recently been completed.

Unfortunately, the songs will never be heard live with Phil’s voice, but that doesn't diminish the power of this remarkable record which stands as a touching tribute to one of the most significant artists of a rightly celebrated generation (and beyond).

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Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood has little in common with The pretty Things past work, save for the fact that it is wholly unique and an absolute first. Arguably, this record is as ground-breaking as the band’s seminal psychedelic masterpiece S. F. Sorrow, which is acknowledged as the first Rock Opera. In some ways, due to the stripped-down nature of the album, the levels of inspiration, imagination, originality and musicality on display are at an equivalent high. For the band’s two principal members this was an arduous and unfamiliar task, relying solely on their fundamental talents and undertaken without the comfort and benefit of the thundering band approach that had underpinned The Pretty Things' work for so many years.

It features a mix of source material; standards the band has featured in its set for years; some semi-contemporary compositions by unexpected, existing and established artists (but of a younger generation); original recordings penned by old friends and new finds. There is a connection across the 55-year timespan between the start-up Pretties, and this newly emerging, acoustic and roots Pretty Things.

This is work stripped bare and reflects the frailties and insecurities of gathering age, ill health, painful failure and memorable success. It is a reflection on two long, long lives in art and music that have always been at the cutting edge.

Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood is the work of two old men who are acting their age, maybe for the first time ever. If their health and energy is depleted, their skill, insight and experience is not, with the result that they have made a remarkable, exciting, unexpected and thought-provoking record, that is, against all the odds, another singular “first” for an already groundbreaking band.

'It was a very sad day when we said an enforced goodbye to the astounding electric band that was The Pretty Things in December 2018. It is a very happy day to see the band’s return as the old men they truly are, finally comfortable to release the young men that, for such a long, long time, they were.” - Phil May