The mysteriously enigmatic band Natalie Pryce unveiled their latest album Bad Men recently. As usual this is an unsettlingly enjoyable listen. The musical content of the 10 male-monikered songs to be found within is suitably reflected in the cover art featuring a sinisterly creepy masked man in crumpled pyjamas reclining aggressively on a bed…
This album comes at a time where issues like taking back the streets for women are to the fore in the wake of recent events following the murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a serving policeman. I’m sure the messages portrayed on this album won’t be popular with the “not all men are like that” brigade. You know, the same ones that stood protecting statues and whimpering that ‘white lives matter too’ the other year. But it will be popular with those who strive for justice and a more equal society… None more so than on the well observed Kenny, in which the key character seems to protest his innocence just a little bit too much.
Bad Men
Of course not all men are bad, but this album highlights the many guises that the Bad Men of the album title take. Those who we wouldn’t wish to invite into our homes let alone have them live there live there.
Hey, this is a review not a public service announcement. So what of the music? All of these incredible songs are delivered in the inimitable style that only Natalie Pryce can. Almost impossible to pigeonhole. Their sound lives in a place that intersects the area between the seedy rockabilly sleaze of The Cramps, the unseemly underbelly that forms the world for the darker parts of Matt Johnson’s The The and the late night sound of smoky jazz club meets The Roadhouse feel of Twin Peaks.
Sinister
Daryn opens the album with a cacophony of dissonant jazz noise. A series of voices overlapping in the chorus of “I hate men”, before the song reveals a list legitimate reasons for the at first seemingly coverall statement… Hank could have been in an episode of Twin Peaks with the clicked fingers, vibrating strummed guitar and late night sax. The seemingly laid back groove covering a sinister lyric.
New Bob is a soulful upbeat jazzy rap. The refrain of “I am what I am” questioning how “new” Bob actually is. As you listen and get drawn into this sinister world through the addictive rhythms, you begin to wonder whether the song titles are randomly selected names or if they bear some significance to the characters described within. Is James really the literally disturbing misogynistic wanker he is made out to be? Or what about Tony, is he the pneumatic man “who wants to fight anybody”. What are you lookin’ at anyway?
Michael Jackson confused us all when he released an album called Bad, which meant good. Bad Men leaves us in no doubt though, this is an album of fuckin’ beltin’ tunes about a series of fuckin’ despicable characters. Enjoy, late at night, headphones on, while quietly seething…