Big Sexy – “Pretty Girl Blues”
Big Sexy – “Pretty Girl Blues” – Single Review
It can be a damn good thing when you find all the right pieces in all the right places.
I was pretty damn impressed with the first single I’d heard from Big Sexy at the end of September, and if you’re asking me, I’d tell ya that “Pretty Girl Blues” is even more impressive. Expertly crafted, brilliantly executed…I’m tellin’ ya, it checks all the right boxes for a significant win, and you can take that from a guy that has next to no use for the Blues in almost all of its forms. Don’t get me wrong – the best of the best in any genre will always be something I’m interested in y’all…now go back and read that statement again…that’s when you’ll realize just how good “Pretty Girl Blues” by Big Sexy would actually have to be.
No joke though! Honestly, what on earth would anyone think of changing about this song to somehow make it any better than it already is? I ain’t here to mess with perfection when I hear it, and I’m not the kind of critic that’s just gonna invent a problem outta whole cloth for the sake of writing something. I call things like I hear’em, relentlessly…and to be truthful, sometimes that means I have no other choice but to simply tell ya something is as awesome as it really is. When it comes to “Pretty Girl Blues,” I’m extremely impressed by the professionalism not only within the players of the band, but the way that they’re able to use their production to such an impeccable standard as well. I mean…it’s to the point that, were I not sitting over here on my side of the screen fully immersed in the independent music scene each and every day of my life…you’d probably swear “Pretty Girl Blues” was something pulled directly from the ol’ mainstream, made and backed by millions of dollars to get it sounding THIS good.
Yet, here we are, and last I checked, you’ve got vocals/words from Gary Maccagnone, and music fully composed/produced by Alex Goroshko. Two dudes that are responsible for essentially everything you’ll hear, and they should be seriously commended for that when it comes to this particular single. Like, let’s be real here – the guitar in this track is MEAN y’all! Savagely awesome by every conceivable definition…so alive and so gnarly…you can audibly tell how much fun it would be to play a song like this, and as a result of that kind of investment in the writing & craft, I feel like the performance reflects all that right back atcha as you listen. It’s got kind of a like…I dunno what you’d wanna call it…it’s like an old 60s/70s tone to it that you might find in something like Steppenwolf I suppose – but it WORKS in such an extraordinarily relevant way here that you can’t help but notice how well it slides its sound right into this twisted Blues/Rock single from Big Sexy. What’s even more interesting about it, is that despite how damn good the guitar in this tune really IS, and how it’s the first thing you’ll hear in the song itself, the first thing you’ll likely notice is actually how seamlessly Gary comes in to sing this one. We’re talkin’ about perfect tone, perfect expression, perfectly written parts to perform…it’s all there y’all – and this dude can SING with the best of’em when it comes right down to it. He nails this whole song down so tightly they should call him The Hammer from here on in. After that, you’ll start to notice the other rad details to be found here…from the sprinkling of piano in the background to enhance the vibe, to the gripping solo on the guitar, or the badassery supplied by the saxophone later on down the road. I’m tellin’ ya, without hyperbole whatsoever, this is one of the most bulletproof tracks I’ve heard this year.
As to the subject matter and the theme of the song itself, that’s perhaps where I can be the most real with ya about what you’ll hear and how it will/won’t affect how you listen to the song itself. From what I’ve read – yes you read that correctly – from what I’ve read, I understand that “Pretty Girl Blues” is much about “the misfortune some ladies have simply for being beautiful” – and according to Gary, the beginning is actually based on a true story of rape “that was perpetrated against Maccagnone’s mother” years and years ago. Are people going to notice the grisly scenes of the words in this song? I’ll put it to ya this way…it’s not as likely as you might think it would be, even with Gary singing so clearly and with such precise power in his words. This is the kind of song that people would have to listen to dozens of times before they even got an inkling of what it was actually about, and credit where credit is due, that’s largely because the sound of this song is so entirely killer from start to finish that it practically takes up the whole spotlight and capacity for what listeners can absorb. That can be a little tough to take as a songwriter sometimes…I think we’re all looking for things we write with deeper meanings to be heard if I’m being entirely honest with ya – and I’m confident that in time, they will be when it comes to “Pretty Girl Blues” as well – all I’m saying is that people will be listening and singing along with this song for a long, long time before they likely realize what it’s actually about. On the other side of that coin, is the fact that, were everybody to immediately understand what “Pretty Girl Blues” is about, it would actually greatly affect who would play it and how often…because again, in truth, that’s not always going to be subject matter that everyone is gonna wanna rock out to, and it could also be triggering to a great many people that have suffered through similar scenarios as well. In short, it’s not going to be the happiest song you’re gonna hear this year by any stretch of the imagination – but it’s a fantastic example of how music doesn’t need to be that at all to be great, and how it can essentially shroud itself within the sound to deliver more important & substantial material behind a kickass groove that everyone would wanna turn right UP to the rafters. So…I suppose in a way, it’s a double-edged sword – Gary’s songwriting and lyricism will more than likely take a backseat when people start listening to this single as a result of how killer the music composed by Alex is, but it will eventually get its due credit when folks continue to spin this song. It’s because of their incredible combined performance that people WILL keep spinning “Pretty Girl Blues” though, so they can rest assured that listeners will eventually come around to hearing what their song is really all about…just gotta be patient with that last part is all, but it’ll happen eventually. In the meantime, they simply gotta find a way to be comfortable with creating a song that is outright irresistible to listen to, even if it’s somewhat of a given that not everyone singing along will know what it is they’re actually singing about…yet…but they’ll get there. It’s certainly a song that you’ll get more out of the more that you spin it, but also a song that is brilliantly designed and written to hit listeners with a knockout punch of spectacular sound right away too. There are layers of enjoyment to be found, even despite a much more horrifying concept at the core of it all…I’m 100% confident you’ll all dig “Pretty Girl Blues” one way or the other at first, and then recognize its real potency all-around with continued spins.
Find out more about Big Sexy from this multi-link right here: https://linktr.ee/alexgoroshko8
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