Soundbooth
Denver Twang-Pop powerhouse PrettyMouth are so good it hurts
PULP Soundbooth Album of the Month — December 2016
PrettyMouth — ”Nightshade of Red”
If you like: Emmylou Harris • Neko Case • Portishead
Noted theorist and musical sage John Cougar Mellencamp first espoused the “Hurts So Good” philosophy, and as great as it was, no one puts this idea into action better than Denver’s PrettyMouth. Their musical output is bonafide boiling blood and lust in musical notes; they are the tension between stillness and motion, and perhaps most importantly, a fantastic group that is around for us right now to take in and appreciate. What a world!
Their newest single Nightshade of Red is two tantalizing tracks that beg for repeat listens; thick and swelteringly overdriven Alt Rock-guitar tonality via Marie Litton and Lief Sjostrom that glistens when need be while they keeping one foot on the gas and the other in the grave, reverberating with a dense atmospheric Baroque-Pop twang that more Americana artists needed to pick up on yesterday. This pairs like the finest of wines against a moody and hypnotic rhythm section of both Jedd Kopp and Benjamin Williams, who pace every damn measure of the music so well that I found myself a bit entranced and nodding along for the entire duration of the experience.
All of this, of course, would nearly be for naught without the lyricism and musicality of the bands’ singer and guitarist Marie Litton. A former Puebloan and Denver music scene veteran (her work in the now defunct Ghost Buffalo and current project Dirty Pop outfit Lil’ Thunder have made their own significant outputs), Marie has a penchant for taking musical water from a deep well that most wouldn’t dare to draw from; writing and singing emotionally dense and delicately honest Americana-leaning numbers that lilt and sting in tandem; Moody and captivating diddies that you‘ll want to drink to forget to, although I don’t think you’ll forget songs this damn good. -John Bueno
Head over to prettymouthmusic.bandcamp.com to hear and purchase “Nightshade of Red” and more from Denver’s PrettyMouth. Shows and updated info here.
