Pretty Maids – Future World – Classic

I have a love/hate relationship with “Future world”, the second album by the Danish band Pretty Maids, released in April 1987, at a time when many metal bands were trying to break into the US, and I’ll explain why. Love, because how can you not love such a well written, played, produced and performed record? After the raw impetuosity of their long-running debut album “Red hot and Heavy” three years earlier, Pretty Maids finally managed to perfectly unite the two souls that have lived in them together since they were just a Thin Lizzy cover band with a frantic search for brilliant , a chrome-plated sound ideal for American audiences that were hailing the likes of Ratt, Motley Crue, Dokken and Wasp. I hate it because a potential band of new metal gods in my universe of beardless, long-haired and sleazy metalheads wasted time on sugary songs that belied the energy that the five Danes showed even in concert venues where they didn’t support anyone else. than the reformed Deep Purple Mark II.

Now it is clear that this second feeling for the “world of the future” seen by today’s eyes is a little funny, but this feeling of sticky sweetness has remained in me and I think it will never disappear, but it has definitely faded into the background compared to the sparkling the beauty of this disc, which, in my opinion, has never been equaled by Atkins and his associates, who in subsequent years managed to keep the bar straight even in the 90s, which were scolded (not by me, mind you), but the compositional peaks of this album were only touched upon -where in the next albums. Here, CBS, which has already sensed our potential since the release of our self-titled debut EP, provides many first-class employees, starting with Eddie Kramer, the world famous producer with whom he worked with Jimi Hendrix. , Beatles, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, plus Anthrax, Raven, Icon, Loudness, Twisted Sister and the great and unknown Sir Lord Baltimore, fired but in the process due to misunderstandings with band (some say he even fell asleep at the console), his work was completed by Chris Isca, of course lesser known, but the author of an excellent work. We’ve been talking about famous collaborators, and in fact we find two top-notch mixing specialists like Flemming Rasmussen, who is primarily remembered for his work with Metallica on “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets”, but we also find it behind the console. with Blind Guardian, Rainbow, and more extreme territories with Morbid Angel and Saturnus, as well as Kevin Elson, who is definitely more familiar with the material presented on these pages, having worked with Journey, Europe, Mr. Big and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and, finally, let’s not forget the wonderful art on the cover of Joe Petagno, the author of the art covers of Led Zeppelin, Nazareth and, above all, the creator of Snaggletooth, the symbol of Motorhead, which appeared on the covers of Lemmy’s band until 2006, in short, everything was ready, staged so that he could a sumptuous dinner was to be served, and so it was.

From the title track’s “cosmic” intro, there is a serene atmosphere, even if the song is dedicated to Phil Lynott, leader of Thin Lizzy, who died last year, every part of this album seems to make up an image. bright, positive, even when you get a little lost in the melancholy of the ballad “Eye of the Storm”, this is one of the main reasons why I believe that “The World of the Future” is one of the most important classics, not only in relation to the melodic branch here, but with all the known hard n-heavy, it’s all there and done very well, from the arena anthem “We Came to Rock” to the aor-sauce single “Love Games”, the first piece on which he put Kevin Elson into the mixing stage, and you notice the difference with the next , an energetic “Yellow Rain”, differently processed by Flemming Rasmussen, the first has more chromatic sounds, drums are triggered (something a little at the time), while the second has a rougher and more direct sound, the B-side opens with the song “Loud ‘n’proud” for those who have the vinyl, track number five for those who have the CD, lightning, an anthem to the metal lifestyle. , with lyrics as naive as it is captivating: “Have a party, indulge, put your hands up in rock and roll, let the rhythm take control”, the next “Rodeo” is an aor-tinged single, complemented by predominant keyboards, this is actually Elson’s new ‘treatment’, the alternation of speed metal pieces returning with “Needles in the dark”, whose lyrics differ from metal clichés, but also from aor, no love, no party lyrics, but condemnation of increasingly obvious degradation , in short, a very topical and rather prophetic lyric “Eyes of the Storm” that I mentioned earlier, musically it is a slow ripper, with school arrangements to demonstrate that the band already knew that its completion was entrusted to “Long way to go “, another potential hit, hard rock teetering between lighter Deep Purple and more Scorpions inspired, also released here on Kevin Elson’s console.

In such a scenario, it was easy to foresee an explosion of enormous proportions, and instead, Tomorrowworld was successful compared to what other bands had experienced trying to jump towards Sunset Boulevard, see Raven, Crocus, Heavy Pettin but not as CBS expected, would it be due to the heavy spanking and Ronnie’s voice not wanting to completely leave the metal grit? We’ll never know what we know is that we enjoyed this album to the fullest. I, like many others, gutted it from the moment it was released and appreciated every note, every nuance, every idea, and so far this record surpasses all others. a competition between many melodic and non-melodic artists for many reasons, but one of them is the most significant in the first place: songs that the Pretty Maids knew/know how to write, and there are a few catchy ones, period!

© 2023, Giorgio Barbieri. All rights reserved.