Customer Reviews

Prick

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently made a mix tape for someone who was very into DAVID BOWIE. As I made it, I tried to think of "Bowie-esque" bands I could include. Of course, I put BAUHAUS on the tape. And then I remembered PRICK, whose self-titled album I had bought in 1995, listened to repeatedly for months, loved to death, and then put away.

Well, I recently re-listened to the entire album after many years. Although most of the tracks were produced by TRENT REZNOR and have an inevitable NINE INCH NAILS feel to them, PRICK can stand apart on their own merits and influences. Fans of NIN would no doubt be interested in them, but you don't have to like NIN to enjoy PRICK, whose music is somehow more comparable to "Low"-era Bowie than anything NIN have done.

The songwriting is excellent. To my mind PRICK's melodies, vocal stylings, and even lyrics owe much more to PETER MURPHY and even to MAGAZINE-era HOWARD DEVOTO than to Trent Reznor. Folks who like PRICK would be well-advised, in fact, to check out such MAGAZINE songs as "Permafrost" and "Song from Under the Floorboards" to see where McMahon may have gotten his influences. [And if he didn't get them there, then they're so similar as to be eerie.]

Themes of PRICK's excellent songs: sexual "deviance" [Animal, Other People], relationships gone wrong [No Fair Fights] , making up for and moving beyond past personal & relationship failures [I Apolgise, Makebelieve].

The only song I don't like on this CD is "Crack." But even that one is not too entirely bad. The album closer, "Makebelieve," is phenomenal. The opening song, "Communique," is energetic and catchy, and the rest of the tracks manage to follow through on its promises.

Lyrically, the songs are sensual and sexy. The song "Animal" conjures an atmosphere like in the fetish-oriented movie Secretary. The vocals are alternately fragile and abrasive. How much of the oevrall sucess of the album hinges upon Reznor's intervention is still something that can be debated. I'm not sure. But whatever the combination was, it worked extraordinarily well here. PRICK's other album, released almost a decade after this one, doesn't come close to the thematic and sonic coherence and brilliance of this one.

I've always thought it a shame that this album never received more attention than it did when it was released. And now, nearly ten years after it first came out, I can't help but wonder that there must be some conspiracy amongst music critics not to have named it one of the Top 100, maybe even Top 50, albums of the 1990s. Everything good about Bowie, Bauhaus, Magazine--and, yes, with bits of Nine Inch Nails or even bands like Sisters of Mercy thrown in--can be found in this tight, 10 song package. Highly recommended!

I picked this up simply because I had heard it mentioned on a NIN newsgroup. Total hearsay. However, since I happened to work at a music store, I found it right away and picked it up. I will admit that after the first listen to it, I was a little turned off, but I rarely get a full feel for music after just one listen. It grew on me quickly. In the span of about 3-4 listenings of it, it became my favorite, and rarely left my cd player. A frantic search for more material left me mostly emptyhanded, except for a clue that Kevin McMahon also fronted a band known as Lucky Pierre (which also included another individual known as Trent Reznor on guitar for a time...). Unfortunately, anything by Lucky Pierre is nearly impossible to find now. I have heard rumors of a new Prick disc to be release sometime in the future, but as far as I can tell, it's only a rumor unfortunately. Another rumor is that "Prick" is merely the name of the disc, and not the name of the band (if you can call one person a "band"). I can only hope that there is more to what I've heard than just rumors. As far as the disc goes, it is, as I mentioned above, simply outstanding. The song topics range from somewhat twisted, perverse sex ("Other People," "Crack," "Animal") to the hopeful naivete of young artists ("I Got It Bad") to the hopeful pleas for security ("Makebelieve"). The writing is superb ("Hello, frantic frauds of verse/hang on to your lies"), the music is incredibly complex, and the engineering and production is, well, Trent. If anything I or anyone else has said strikes your interest, do yourself a favor and pick up this disc. Listen to it, not once, not twice, but mulitiple times. FEEL the music flow around you. HEAR the lyrics as they take you away to another place. EXPERIENCE the entire disc. You won't soon forget it.

This would be my pick for the most overlooked rock/electronic album of all time. It is truly indifferent to genre constrictions, and it freely passes through the Industrial, Pop, Rock, Glam worlds with an element of unplaceable strangeness.

Kevin McMahon, who basically is Prick, began working with Trent Reznor prior to the formation of NIN (and Trent in turn produced a few tracks on this album and did backing vocals for the fun and intense track Other People). The best summaraztion of Prick's sound that I've heard was actually from Reznor himself; "Everything Kevin makes... just sounds... wrong." The music has a complete irreverence for popular styles and conventions. There's no attempt at accessibility or mainstream appeal in this pop music. This is pop made for the love of pop music, and it almost obvliviously blends styles and sounds from the 70's, 80's and 90's to form a catchy and almost neurotic sound.

The vocals are androgenous with an unplaceable-glam accent in the voice. The lyrics are bizarre and seem to constantly have multiple meanings and intentions. It is very hard to learn more about the mystery that lies behind the creative process, since McMahon rarely seems to emerge from the rock he's been hiding under.

Still, he brought out this incredibly produced this masterpiece of a genre that he created. It's music that seems to manically shift between being aggressive to humorous to bitersweet in one run. I remember my first reaction to the music being uncomfortable and almost nervous... but over time it has grown and and I've become more attatched to it. While most of the other albums I was buying at the time have grown transparent and dull, the Prick album stands out more and more. I'd discovered a hidden gem of pop-industrial perfection, and it's left an imprint on me.

More people should hear this album, as it deserves a great deal more appreciation than it's been given. If you're already a fan of the album, there's two other albums that McMahon has made since that are only available off his websites... The first one is a noise/industrial follow up to the self titled (called the Wreckard), and the other is a more pop album that he did under the name Lucky Pierre (called ThinKing). Both are great, but neither is quite as amazing and essential as this album.

One of the most raucous and emotionally resonant albums I have ever heard. It's almost embarrassing, but this music means quite a bit to me.

This album was released with little to no fanfare on Trent Reznor's fledgling Nothing label back in 1995. The only reason I heard of it was because of two viewings of "Animal" on 120 Minutes that blew me away. I loved the song, but I found the rest of the album a bit disappointing upon first listen.

That changed after the first few listens. When people say "psychedelic", this album is what they mean.

COMMUNIQUE - "Let your force field drop, sensors out and try to communicate." Proto-song for the rest of the album. Builds to an amazing crescendo, explodes and then keeps on going.

RIVERHEAD - Maybe my favorite song on the album. Too close to explain. Carries better than almost anything I've ever heard.

TOUGH - "I feel my body breaking up!" Proves the point that once you've given everything there's only more left to give.

OTHER PEOPLE - One of the most immediately heavy songs on the album, yet still melodic. This is rock.

NO FAIR FIGHTS - "Hello frantic frauds of verse," one of my favorite lyrics. A fan favorite. Soft song with teeth.

ANIMAL - Now this song is fun. "You really don't know, do you?"

I GOT IT BAD - Another immediate favorite. Pop chorus, crescendo, industrial tinge, what's not to like?

I APOLOGISE - I know a lot of people like this song, but it's always been one of the albums missteps for me. Too simplistic a brand of pop for me.

CRACK - Another awry song. I see what he's going for but the song never reaches quite that furor. Then again, your mileage may vary.

MAKEBELIEVE - Another song that hits me too close. At any rate, it has one of the best lead-outs ever. The voices at the end can fool you as well.

If you are a fan of Nothing label type music, and have not heard this, well, now is the time to pick it up. This may be your only chance to hear the musical genius of a man who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.

Prick is by far the most instrumentally apt group signed to Nothing Records. Although I use "group" here loosely, like most industrial projects Prick is Kevin McMahon. Unlike most other industrial albums that tend to be either too guitar oriented or too tech oriented, co-producers T.Reznor and Warne Livesey were able to find a proper medium. Immediately this album hits you with intense power. From the opening track "Communique" to the second to last track "Crack", Prick delievers driving guitars and pulsating rhythms. The high points here are the tracks "Other People" (a song that shows a kind of twisted intimacy), "No Fair Fights", the album's jewel "Animal", and "I Got It Bad" a song that draws you in with its chorus. The only real disappointment is the the song "Makebelieve", a track that is just a bit too sappy. Overall this album rocks and is a must for any industrial collection. But do! n't be mislead! Prick is not a NIN clone, you can hear Reznor's influence as producer but Prick stands out quite strongly on its own merits.

I purchased this album back in 1995,and it's been one on my most cherished ever since. Tastes change with time, yet there's enough here to keep me listening 12 years after it first resonated. There's very few albums that manage that, even nine inch nails seem stale now.

Buy this.

I have literally thousands of albums, and PRICK is one of my top 50 of all time. Each and every song on this rock/glitter/EBM masterpiece is fascinating, strange and MEMORABLE. Of all the albums of its genre, PRICK is one of the few that contains 10 songs that you can play on the piano, re-arrange, or do anything else with. It's songs first, production second.

Of course, that production second is second to none! This thing is crispy, crunchy, distorted meyhem with enough depth to keep you listening throughout.

Influences? Bowie, Front 242, Led Zep, The Cars, and just about every other truly influential act pre-1995. Hearing it (gulp) 9 years after its release, this is the overall most rounded album to come from nothing in the nineties. The Downward Spiral is a more cohesive and focused blast of rage, but PRICK really bears more repeated listenings.

Amazing. One of my top 10 of the nineties.

Wow I kinda accidentally stumbled upon this cd here on amazon. I had this when I was 15 and am now 25 and remember how much I used to listen to this cd. Sounds alot like NIN and Pig but seemed foreign. I don't know much about the band but for a pretty much 'unknown' the production was great and I guess perhaps Reznor gave some effort to that. For what it was I give it a 5 star rating just because some of the songs were really well made and memorable. Ones I remember most were Tough, Other People, Riverhead, Animal, No Fair Fights... hope you like it :)

I have not listened to anything people consider "industrial" since high school. while this album certainly has a heavy sound to it, it is much more of an indispensable pop/rock album than anything simply industrial. the composition of the songs and vocals make it something really unique and special. I've had the album for years and it never seems to leave my cd player for long. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in something different from mainstream.
crippled by a lack of air time, prick seemed to disappear until 02' when a follow up was released exclusively on luckypierremusic com. the follow up, the wreakard, has some great songs on it but is also hindered by a couple that get so rough the melodies are lost. Kevins other band, lucky pierre, also has an album for sale on the site. it is a virtually flawless pop rock album that one can't help but wonder if it was released in Pricks place perhaps things would have turned out differently. I can't recommend any of his albums highly enough. Lets hope there's more on the way.

I first discovered Prick and Kevin McMahon like almost everyone else through his NIN connection. Almost instantly this CD blew me away! All ten tracks on Prick's self-titled debut are extremely accessible and catchy, yet at the same time extremely complex and layered with collages of sound that will keep you listening for years. I have owned and listened to this CD since 1995 and I still put it on at least once a week and am continually amazed... It's one of the few CDs I own worthy of being called a masterpiece. Everything from Kevin's voice, to his use of sound effects, to his guitars, to his songwriting is perfect. I can't recommend this CD enough...