Credit: Judy TottonVeteran British rock band The Pretty Things will release a new studio album called Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood on September 25. The stripped-down, acoustic collection features the last recordings late frontman Phil May made with fellow founding member, guitarist Dick Taylor.
May died in May at age 75 from complications following hip surgery after a biking accident, although he’d been experiencing serious health issues before that that had led the band to retire from touring at the end of 2018.
A message from Pretty Things manager Mark St. John explains, “At the time of his death, [May] was hugely excited and enthused about the impending release of the first-ever, all-acoustic ‘Pretty Things’ album, which had been completed before his death.”
The record mainly features just May and Taylor. Dick had played bass with The Rolling Stones before he and Phil co-founded The Pretty Things in 1963.
In a press release about the album prepared shortly before May’s passing, St. John says, “This is work stripped bare and reflects the frailties and insecurities of gathering age, ill health, painful failure and memorable success. It is a reflection on two long, long lives in art and music that have always been at the cutting edge, and that have always worked as they did at the very start, in their teenage years.”
Two tracks from Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood — “The Devil Had a Hold of Me” and “To Build a Wall” — have already been released as advance digital singles. You also can check out the songs at the Madfish label’s official YouTube channel.
Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood can be pre-ordered now, and will be available on CD, as a two-LP set pressed on red vinyl and digitally.
Here’s the track list:
“Can’t Be Satisfied”
“Come into My Kitchen”
“Ain’t No Grave”
“Faultline”
“Redemption Day”
“The Devil Had a Hold of Me”
“Bright as Blood”
“Love in Vain”
“Black Girl”
“To Build a Wall”
“Another World”
Bonus Track:
“I’m Ready”
By Matt Friedlander
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