ALBUM: Cancel the Future ARTIST: Pretty City
Welcome to the bright, riff-laden future of Melbourne fuzz-rockers Pretty City with their brand new sophomore album 'Cancel the Future'
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After spending the bulk of last year touring their debut 'Colourize', this snazzy quartet have rapidly turned heads, ears and more with their dynamic combo of shoegaze and power chord indie rock. But where 'Colourize' sparked up an intimate psych-rock love affair, 'Cancel the Future' broadens the group's creative horizons and offers up a thumping technicolour dreamcoat of woozy riffs, upbeat grooves and stadium-ready anthems that calls to mind some of the shoegaze greats mixed with The Dandy Warhols - and a dash of some good old fashioned Aussie charm.
The album kicks off with one of the lead singles 'Nothing Happens for Free'; a swirling beat-fest that sees the Pretty City lads in solid rock mode, with catchy as hell ostinatos that will stick in your brain and rattle you awake at 4am, before leading us into the dream-gaze zone with 'Piece of the Puzzle' and 'Flying'. 'Same as Before' dresses up with some slight U2 vibes and gives up a sprawling soundscape underneath exhilarating clashing guitars and perky vocals from Hugh Matthews.
Halfway through the album we've got a 90s wonderland courtesy of 'Everybody Misses You', before the beautifully trippy 'Television' strips it all back and shows a sturdy vintage string to the overly-talented Pretty City bow. Slowly winding to a close, there's never a dull moment with the blastingly bombastic track 'Boots' glitching into solid overdrive anthem 'Be Someone', glam rock belter 'Simone', and finally the gaze-iest of all tracks with closer 'Sing Me a Song'.
For a group who have spent the better part of 2018 kicking absolute ass and also working their butts off (including a SXSW appearance in March), it's little surprise that 'Cancel the Future' is such a triumph - this is a bold and dangerously enjoyable release that keeps you guessing until the very end. And if the future is indeed cancelled, then thank goodness this album came out before the final curtain.
Pretty City will be gallivanting around Europe, largely in Germany, until May, but if you're not able to catch them in the land of chocolate, you can go check out 'Cancel the Future' and more below:
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BY TIANA SPETER