Pretty & Nice was a band on the brink of being a buzz band. In late 2008, the Boston trio released its second full-length, Get Young, a tightly-crafted burst of energy that fully embodied the reckless abandon of youth, on Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art. By SXSW the following March, they were playing Sub Pop’s party opposite Handsome Furs, in addition to a slew of other gigs. Their brand of infectious dance-punk felt original, with members channeling the raw energy of their debut into impressive new wave elasticity for the second LP. And then, the momentum just sort of disappeared.
A few years later, and Hardly Art is out of the picture. Pretty & Nice have released EPs and 7-inches on various tiny labels, but no full-length since Get Young. But the band is resurfacing now, as strong as ever. On Golden Rules for Golden People, Pretty & Nice preserve the fizz of youth while finding a way to grow up a little. Rather than slow down, they've incorporated a wider range of sounds. The band’s previous efforts excelled by working within a very specific framework, which fell somewhere between the new wave of Elvis Costello’s first few albums and of Montreal’s least soulful songs. Here, however, they mine vintage surf-rock, orchestral pop, and power-pop. The results are occasionally illogical (funky yet math-y, with eight-bit flourishes) and make for some unusual comparisons (Devo with an ELO-ish vibe). The spazz remains, but it’s accompanied by the kitchen sink.
Take the song “Yonkers”, one of the album’s best: In less than four minutes, the track goes through at least five different phases. It segues from a throttle of riffs to a cutesy surf chorus and bridge, from wonky angles into blazing brass, from a heavenly choir of human voices to manufactured bleeps and bloops. It’s disorienting in a joyful way. There are other songs that more fully commit to one or two ideas, such as “New Czar” and “Gold Fools.” The former gives off a feeling that can only be described as “giddy up”; it’s a drum beat that demands one rides on, matched by a throwback pop melody. The latter, one of the album’s more produced tracks, has a dark electronic beat lording over it. Though brief at just a minute and a half, “Gold Fools” is something worth paying attention to, both for the eerie club vibe and singer Holden Lewis’ falsetto crooning.
Lewis’ precise diction serves as an anchor amidst the musical chaos, helping the album’s seemingly nonsensical lyrics to stand out. Presenting what seems to be a series of metaphors, he sings about animals, zombies, Malibu, Rockefeller money, unsinkable ships, and shallow beautiful people. He also often repeats the line, “we are all instruments,” the first words heard on the album. With song titles like “Money Music” and “Gold Fools”, the “golden people” of Golden Rules for Golden People appear to be the ones the band rails against. This is a band comprising people who've worked menial day jobs and who came up through a DIY scene, so it's no real surprise they’re criticizing the upper class. In that sense, fans of unrelenting genres like punk may find Pretty & Nice's politics and pace appealing. But, really, Golden Rules for Golden People has plenty to offer for anyone with the energy to keep up with it.
