Pretty Little Head

Nellie McKay | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 31, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Black Dove
• ASIN: B000HIP4CY
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,279 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Cupcake

2. Pink Chandelier

3. There You Are in Me

4. Yodel

5. The Big One

6. G.E.S.

7. I Will Be There

8. The Down Low

9. Long & Lazy River

10. I Am Nothing

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Real Life

2. Tipperary

3. Gladd

4. Food

5. We Had It Right

6. Columbia Is Bleeding

7. Lali Est Paresseux

8. Happy Flower

9. Mama & Me

10. Pounce

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Few recording artists follow their double-disc debut with another double-disc collection. Nellie McKay isn't the typical recording artist. The singer/songwriter/activist is a restless talent--with a steely backbone. When Columbia refused to release this 23-track set, McKay took a hike and put it out on her own Hungry Mouse imprint. (The song "Columbia Is Bleeding" isn't about her former label, rather the treatment of lab animals at the Ivy League institution.) McKay's creative restlessness brings to mind Robert Pollard and Matt and Eleanor Friedberger, not so much in sound, but in the sense that--for better or for worse--there's nothing she won't try. In "G.E.S." and "Mama & Me," she raps. In the latter, she quips, "See I been livin' with my mama/since I was an embryo/never had Nintendo/saw a lot of Brecht though." In "Tipperary," the British-born New Yorker torches up the joint music hall-style. Then in "Yodel," she, well, yodels. What holds it all together is McKay's flexible, appealing pipes. There's a reason she was cast as Polly Peachum in the Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera--the petite blonde oozes charisma. McKay's actress mother, Robin Pappas, served as executive producer on Pretty Little Head, which features charming duets with fellow iconoclasts k.d. lang ("We Had It Right") and Threepenny co-star Cyndi Lauper ("Beecharmer"). As with Get Away from Me, the album is like a seven-course meal; overwhelming if taken in all at once, but there's a little something here for pretty much everyone. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars no sophomore slump here, October 31, 2006

By 

Bryant Burnette "Bryant Burnette" (Tuscaloosa, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pretty Little Head (Audio CD)

McKay's sophomore album was famously stopped from release by Columbia Records, who apparently demanded that it be released as a single disc rather than as the double-disc album the artist wanted. Who knows why -- I'm going to speculate that they just didn't want to pony up the meager cost to produce a double album. It's a strange decision, and totally the wrong one -- if you're releasing an album by someone whose individualism is a MAJOR part of their appeal, then you'd have to be nuts to try and step on them.

Luckily, McKay owned the rights to the recordings and was able to self-release the album. In case you're wondering, it's not a letdown. Maybe a leetle self-indulgent here and there, but so what? All art is self-indulgent, and this pretty much all works.

My personal favorites from the album are "Cupcake," the lovely "Long & Lazy River," "We Had It Right" (a duet with k.d. lang), and "Columbia Is Bleeding," but that's just me. As with her first album, McKay tries out a LOT of different styles, ranging here from hip-hop to ballad to pop to yodel, and whereas most musicians would have a hard time roping all those disparate elements into one corral, McKay manages to make it all seem of a piece. It's kind of astonishing, and will seem more and more so with each time you listen to the CD. Sorry, make that "CDs."

Another exceptional effort from an exceptional talent. Buy two and give one to someone you know would never buy it for themselves.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Album of 2006 -- Criminally Underrated, May 20, 2007

By 

EddieLove "EddieLove" (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pretty Little Head (Audio CD)

This didn't make the Village Voice's list of the top 30 albums of the year? There's more wit and inventiveness on these discs than can be found in the entire careers of others. Any pop fan can feast on these hooks for months. It sounds like Stephen Sondheim joined an East Village girl group. This woman is a genius.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars when the cutest little kitty comes and hits you in the eye, March 25, 2008

By 

My Uncle Stu (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pretty Little Head (Audio CD)

I'm really digging Nellie McKay these days and tonight this album is my favorite. K.D. Lang and Cindi Lauper had been off my radar but their collaborations here are real treats.

The first disc is overall the more sober, less spirited of the two but I really enjoyed "The Big One." "Pink Chandelier" is a woozy delight. And of course "Bee Charmer," with Cindi Lauper stirred me up. Cindi Lauper has always been a guilty pleasure for me. "Girls Just Want to have Fun" coincided with the hormonal zenith of my adolescence. Madonna came on strong, Cindi started wrestling, Cindi got an ulcer, and then began the slow fade. But I never forgot her.

The second disc is very solid. "Pounce" clocks in under a minute but is all hook, it'll become tightly entrenched in your retroperitoneal space before the second yowl. I had a very aversive reaction to the creepy baby-talk histrionics in "Mama and Me" but it is has a peculiar elegance. "Columbia is Bleeding" is potent. And "Lali Est Paresseux" is a carefree treat, although I don't know what the lyrics mean, so I'm hoping it isn't some awful tear-jerker.

Thank you for listening, nighty-night.