Product Description

Third album from spiky Seattle art-rock quintet follows 2003's 'The New Romance'. Following doctor's orders after damage to her vocal cords, singer Andrea Zollo tones it down somewhat, as do the rest of the band, having replaced departed guitarist Nate Thelen with ex-Hint Hint keyboardist Leona Marrs. The resulting album, while less punky and abrasive than before, simmers with contained aggression and sees the band experimenting with dub and folk sounds.

Track Listing

1. Nocturnal House
2. Pyrite Pedestal
3. Number
4. Parade
5. Domino
6. Interlude
7. Magic Hour
8. Selling The Wind
9. Pearls On A Plate
10. Pictures Of A Night Scene
11. Wildcat
12. Bullet Charm

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110920 in Music
• Released on: 2006-04-10
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

moving
if pretty girls make graves had continued to write songs in the same vein as 'good health' i doubt they'd still be around. but after the rather lush sounding 'new romance' this album just flows perfectly out of a highly creative and most original band.
give it a few listens, noone sounds quite like this

i quite liked it...
i've only been a fan of pretty girls for about a year and half, so maybe i found the side step easier to take than bigger fans. dont get me wrong, the new romance is one of my favourite albums, and as a guitarist myself, i find their guitar interplay astounding, and it has influenced the way i play. but i think this is a rather good album as well
i had read all the negative reviews, and the only other person i know who really likes them told me she didn't get the new album at all, so i was prepared to be let down. but it didnt really happen. they obviously have abandoned the sound they had before, which is maybe inevitable when you lose a guitarist and earn a lady with a keyboard, an accordian and a referees whistle.
the pyrite pedestal is quite a tune, with the quiet beginning and development into a military drum rhythm style, with zollos rich voice and strummed chords rather than the slicing guitar that im used to. and i love the firework sample on pearls on a plate, it fades across your ears with such beauty.
the album is very melodic, with songs like parade being more about a tuneful melody than anything else. this album isnt about a quiet verse loud chorus, its more about progression in the music and a mix of ideas, adding ideas almost spontaneously.
there are a lot of parts that my ears catch on, even on the number, which i wasnt terribly keen on initially. theres a lot in this album that excites me, and im looking forward to see how they interpret it at t in the park. its another of these cases where a band attempts to move on, and theres always going to be people who want more of what has gone before. make your own mind up i guess.

eh!? I don't get it....
I'm a huge fan of pretty girls make graves. Their first two albums really rocked the joint. But I'm sorry to report that this album really doesn't add up. It just doesn't make much sense to me at all. There is none of that old magic which really made the other albums rock here!

instead they've gone for a really lazy, laid back style which doesn't hold yer interest. for example one song starts off with a crunchy rocking guitar riff, which sounds promising enough, but then it disappears and is replaced by a dull bass line and doesn't re-appear at all. They then get bored of the bass line and move on to something else at which point the song ends!! the whole album goes like that

The second guitar play has disappeared to! which means you don't get that cool guitar interplay sound which defined their other albums ( I reckon he was the talented one). They've replaced 2nd guitar with a keyboard player who, i kid u not, puts samples of fireworks in one song!! (I've said enough)

C'mon people! lets have a bit of structure/effort/balls. I heard that andrea's vocals are shot n' the doc said she had to cool it down, so I can only assume they are trying to change their direction or something.. But they are heading in the direction of Dido or goldfrapp or something bad like that.

I've listened to the album about 12 times now and can honestly say not a single one really sticks out in my mind.. What d'you guys think about it?

I hope they get their acts together and recover from this droop.
It's like Henry Rollins Said "If you aint gonna put 110% in don't even bother"