The Pretty Littles Soft Rock For The Anxious harks back to a period in the last decade when Australian rock’n’roll was desperately honest and raw.
Opener Soda Pop is a 1:09 minute smear of fuzzed out rock’n’roll that sounds as though vocalist Jack Parsons has set his amp up out the front of his girlfriend’s window as he serenades her, “Well I don’t know if there is one thing I wouldn’t do for you.”
Despite the aforementioned lyrics inherent histrionics, The Pretty Littles’ is music hewn with such atavistic rock music fundamentals that each song compels the listener to be drawn into Parson’s genuine attempt to find meaning in life.
After the rambunctious opener, Sleeping In Water shifts the tempo back a gear and produces a heartfelt piece of power rock. Then one song later on Disco a fuzzy bass line and a dance rock beat create what could best be described as a sad banger – this song would sit nicely beside Positive Tension from Bloc Party’s 2005 masterpiece Silent Alarm.
The Pretty Littles main stylistic muse is now dormant Victorian rock act The Vasco Era with even this album’s title Soft Rock For The Anxious sharing the same cryptic irony of that band’s breakthrough album We All Live By The Sea Side.
On lead single Pride, the band capture a muted tension throughout the verse with the song opening up into a full-on revelation as the vocals rally around the three part phonetics of the song’s chorus “Pri – i – de.”
Soft Rock For The Anxious is a stellar snapshot of a proud Australian indie rock legacy that for many of this era started with You Am I’s Hi-Fi Way.
BY DAN WATT
