Album Review: Fly My Pretties - 'The Studio Recordings Pt. One'

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New Zealand collective Fly My Pretties shares a timeless collection of sophisticated songs on new album ‘The Studio Recordings Pt 1’.

Fly My Pretties are an elusive musical and visual project made up of an ever changing rotation of established musicians and artists founded by The Black Seeds front-man Barnaby Weir and Mikee Tucker (Loop). New album ‘The Studio Recordings Pt. 1’ is comprised of ten multi-genre tunes with a different vocalist leading each song.

And when I say multi-grenes I mean multi-genres. The album opens on the upbeat soulful acoustic track ‘Singing in my Soul’ (feat. Age Pryor). Stylish soul and contemporary rnb offers a mellow yet impassioned mood on ’Take it From Me’ (feat Bailey White') at the midway mark of the album. You can get a hot hit of 70s blues rock/ soft rock on ‘Quiet Girl’ (feat. Samuel Flynn Scott) that whispers of dreamy Fleetwood Mac vibes or a dose of funky psych rock on ‘It’s Never Blown Like It’s Goin’ (feat. Ryan Pebble).

Then there’s stripped back, dusty atmospheric folk influences on the poignant Garden’ (feat. Anna Coddington) or blues-reggae playfulness on ‘Bag of Money’ (feat. Barnaby Weir) and ‘Get Out’ (feat. Adi Dick) or the huge choral gospel influences of ‘Angels’ (feat. Lisa Tomlins) that impressively wraps up the album.
While soul is at the heart of the album, this is a collaborative effort that isn’t afraid to push at the boundaries of genre and effortlessly weaves emotional songs in between imaginative storytelling to create an accomplished record that flawlessly pulls the most popular sounds of past decades into fresh, contemporary territory.

Words of Karla Harris

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