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THE PANDORAS
Stop Pretending (Rhino Handmade)
Reviewed by Alan Wright
A couple of months ago, I was in the process of transferring some of my live cassettes to CDR for posterity, and while digging through boxes of tapes, I came across one of the Pandoras live in 1985. Upon listening to it I realized that their classic Stop Pretending LP had yet to be reissued on CD, and I wondered why. Well, now it has been reissued (and remastered) along with a slew of bonus tracks and detailed liner notes and pics.
Like many, I first heard the Pandoras on their debut Voxx LP, It's About Time. After that album, the original line-up dissolved, resulting in two separate Pandoras claiming the name, one led by former member Gwynne Kelly and the other by Paula. Paula's outfit, which included future Muffs members Melanie Vamen and Kim Shattuck, won out and were signed to Rhino. Amazingly, the liner notes tell how the album was recorded at a variety of different studios on the cheap, and while Bill Inglot's production style was deliberately slicker than their somewhat thin-sounding debut, it was also much fuller and more fuzzed-out.
One could argue that the songs on this album weren't very original, and in many cases borrow liberally from certain '60s garage tunes, but the execution and sheer bravado they exuded won me over bigtime. Here were these girls screaming about one night stands and loving and leaving men combined with a tough garage band approach. The double entendre lyrics of songs like "In & Out Of My Life (In A Day)," "You Don't Satisfy" and "Let's Do Right" still stand up, and the ringing 12-string folk-rock of the title track is still a blast. This re-release includes 10 more tracks, including their salacious cover of the Invicta's "The Hump" from a B-side, "I Want My Caveman" (basically The Emperor's "I Want My Woman" with slightly different lyrics, but credited to Pierce!), "She's Ugly," "Bad Seed," and a totally horny version of We The People's "You Burn Me Up & Down." The remastering brings out some subtleties and a brighter sound overall, and the booklet filled with info and pics makes for great eye candy.
© 2004 - Alan Wright