The last album recorded by the Pretty Things before Phil May left; within months of this recording, the band split for a few years. Even more than Silk Torpedo, Savage Eye seemed to have been cannily devised with an eye toward picking up FM airplay in the U.S. There were hard rock, glam rock, and AOR rock influences from David Bowie, Queen, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney to be heard at various points, and while this album wasn't explicitly derivative of any of them, it didn't have much of a personality of its own, either. It certainly didn't sound like the Pretty Things, for gosh sakes. And although it went to number 163 on the charts and was one of only two records by the band to chart in the States, it was one of their least memorable.

Silk Torpedo provides an interesting glance into the glam era. Beginning with "Dream" - a ghostly instrumental prelude that the group's friends in Led Zeppelin would later cop for "In the Evening" - this album launches into "Joey," a superb combination of piano boogie, crashing drums, and melodramatic choruses draped in Hammond organ. Phil May's vocals on this piece run somewhere between Ian Hunter and Steve Tyler, and are every bit as effective. "Maybe You Tried" is a glittering slice of glam rock, all pouting and hip-thrusting, with a simply killer guitar hook from Pete Tolson. From this strong start, though, the album falters into a torpid sort of introspection. Still, "Belfast Cowboys" deserves kudos for taking on the Irish question long before U2 was taking its first music lessons. The CD reissue adds live versions of "Singapore Silk Torpedo" and "Dream/Joey," both recorded in 1974.

After raging through R&B early in their career, then exploring the limits of psychedelia, the Pretty Things changed their direction with Freeway Madness, which in retrospect seems like the first part of a musical trilogy (along with Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye). With a huge change in personnel and the team of Phil May and Pete Tolson doing most of the writing, the sound featured John Povey's keyboards, while the lush harmonies that had buoyed Parachute became a mainstay of the sound, which turned decidedly more American radio-friendly. They could rock as hard as ever, but the softer side was decidedly mushier (as on "Love Is Good"), with harmonies so tight you could bounce a quarter off them ("Peter"). Decidedly less original than the work they'd done on Parachute, it still had its moments, such as the delicious "Havana Bound" or the rock boisterousness of "Rip off Train," and while their alliance with Warner Bros. only lasted for this album, it pointed the way to their mid-'70s future.

After a few years of outdoing the Rolling Stones at their own game, Messrs. May and Co., clearly affected by their love of swinging London nightlife and all that went with it, injected their primal R&B roots with added spice (as Mike Stax, "numero uno Los Pretty Things fan," points out in his excellent liner notes). "Can't Stand the Pain" (from the 1965 Get The Picture album) has "a remarkably effective mood with a sense of a dreamy disembodiment that foreshadows what was yet to come with the arrival of psychedelia." By April 1966, B-side "LSD," yet another controversial shot in the Pretty Things' canon, helped pioneer the "freakbeat" sound, whilst the media's attacks on the Pretties slack, druggy values were foremost to the changing times - in fact, the record was a play on words about the English economy and not a celebration of the merits of LSD usage…

The Pretty Things' debut LP was a legendary exercise in anarchy - 30 minutes into the two days' worth of sessions, their original producer, Jack Baverstock (the head of the label, no less), walked out, and was eventually replaced by a slightly more sympathetic personality in the hopes of salvaging something from the efforts of the band, who, whatever their shortcomings in decorum or sobriety, were on their third successive charting single. The resulting album, made under the coordination (if not control) of drummer-turned-producer Bobby Graham, made the early work of the Rolling Stones - rivals and one-time bandmates to the Pretty Things' Dick Taylor - sound more like the work of the Beatles: very calculated, lightweight, and…genteel. The Pretty Things is recorded with practically every song and instrument pushing the needle into the red (i.e., overload)…

A 2017 remaster of Rock St. Trop, the fascinating 1969 collaboration between The Pretty Things and Philippe Debarge (an eccentric wealthy playboy from France).
In late August 1969, Phil May and Wally Waller were flown to St. Tropez by Philippe Debarge and taken to the DeBarge family estate - a magnet for the rich and famous of the era, from politicians to film and rock stars. DeBarge had serious money and wanted to make a serious album, with him as front man. Philippe had done his research and knew exactly who he wanted to make that album with The Pretty Things…

The legendary cult heroes' final electric performance, recorded at the O2 Indigo London in December 2018. Celebrating 55 years of the greatest band most people have never heard of, The Final Bow captures The Pretty Things at their rocking and unique best across 3 sets of classic tracks featuring guest appearances from David Gilmour and Van Morrison…

It is a hefty box in every sense: 13 CDs, supplemented with two DVDs, accompanied by a gorgeous hardcover book and a variety of tchotchkes, including a poster that traces the twisted family trees and time lines of the band and, just as helpfully, replicas of legal documents that explain why the group didn't retain rights to its recordings for years…

Who could ever have thought, going back to the Pretty Things' first recording session in 1965 – which started out so disastrously that their original producer quit in frustration – that it would come to this? The Pretty Things' early history in the studio featured the band with its amps seemingly turned up to 11, but for much of S.F. Sorrow the band is turned down to seven or four, or even two, or not amplified at all (except for Wally Allen's bass – natch), and they're doing all kinds of folkish things here that are still bluesy enough so you never forget who they are, amid weird little digressions on percussion and chorus; harmony vocals that are spooky, trippy, strange, and delightful; sitars included in the array of stringed instruments; and an organ trying hard to sound like a Mellotron…

Live archive release from the British rockers. Recorded in 1992. They roar through a collection of classic material including 'Louie Louie', 'I Want Candy' and '96 Tears'. Lending a hand are some of their musical friends including members of the Inmates and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum.

Rage Before Beauty is by far the best of the latter-day Pretty Things albums. If you're already a fan, you'll hear all the things you love about the band. But fans and newcomers to the Pretties will be pleasantly surprised how much power these guys still display…