Customer Reviews

Records Are Like Life

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

 

 

Andy Pratt's "Records Are Like Life" is a glorious mess of sweet pop music, smothered in a molasses of haunting and spritely crafted melodies, deliciously sabotaged by a misanthropic lyrical appreciation of all kinds of wayward, off-planet sex and fun, and concocted through performances of majesty, might and mayhem. It belongs in the pantheon of great records totally ignored by pop culture (e.g., Pretty Thing's "Parachute," "Small Faces' "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake," Kinks' "Village Green...," and Roy Wood's "Boulders," to name just a slighted few). Only his "Resolution" trumps this as a collection of melody-wrought, multi-genre inflected songs. But while "Resolution" was about love and salvation, "Records..." is about all kinds of other iterations. As Pratt explores all manner of fornication in a few of the songs (often I'm not sure what's he's talking about in a few others), this can only be a turn off to the most prudish of sorts. "Looking for a wet one, can't find none/ Nothing better than a wet bun," is not your grandmother's ode to carnal wooing. However, with humor and melodies such as these, all sins are forgiven. It's the superior melodies that triumph here, bolstered by Pratt's own elastic, snide soprano and his deft abilities as a multi-instrumentalst. Maybe one can claim that "Records..." is the grandfather to Elliot Smith's supreme melody pie, "XO"--especially the heartbreaking "Low Tide Island." For me, nothing compares to this record. It is truly a rare find, right up there with Dennis Wison's "Pacific Ocean Blue" and "Spradel Weeds" by Magic Mushroom. Only 500 vinyl copies were pressed back in the early 70's when this record quickly disappeared. My brother and I have three copies. He got rid of his massive collection years ago, all but for a dozen or so albums. Pratt's was one he saved. To find this in CD form, used no less, was just good luck. Someday Andy Pratt will get the box set he deserves.

is cd on the lable" it's about music" & it is a cdr not a real silver cd, don't bother to spend money on this ripoff.