  
Frontiers/BAM
PRETTY MAIDS have turned 30 as a band, so the maids tag might be a bit tarnished –their output surely isn´t. This new release is not entirely made up of new material, but as the rest of the genre they had a pretty low key 90´s. I bet most of you couldn´t tell which tracks were new and not. I for one didn´t pass the test totally.
Compared to their previous studio album “Motherland” this is better. Last year´s disc suffered from a heavy sound that is not quite PRETTY MAIDS. The band´s 90-ies output was never fully discovered and I do understand that they jumped the gun (sort of pun intended) at displaying their dormant years to the new and old masses. This is all pretty solid with a nice average mark. Apart from “He Who Never Lived”, “Virtual Brutality” and new track in the same vein “Nuclear Boomerang”, all either too vague, or too heavy for the band, this disc achieves a lot. They get to retell their story, they add some new blood that works (the mid-pace with a fine keyboard pattern “My Soul to Take” and the gentle pearl “A Heart Without a Home”) plus they add a new favourite. The surprise is the superior “With These Eyes” off 1999´s “Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing”. That forgotten single is definitely the best the band´s done in years, and a definite new favourite of mine. I can only recommend this album as a blast from the past with some new blood added.
Track List
Deranged
Playing God
Psycho Time Bomb
My Soul to Take
He Who Never Lived
Virtual Brutality
Tortured Spirit
With These Eyes
Nuclear Boomerang
Snakes in Eden
Wake Up to the Real World
A Heart Without a Home
www.frontiers.it www.myspace.com/pmaids
|
