Sittin’ Pretty Self-Titled
I know this might be hard for some people to believe, but a typical day for me (if I have time) consists of at least 10/20 minutes of scrolling the internet trying to seek out bands from the 80’s/early 90’s that I might have missed the first time around. I mostly scroll the facebook groups that are dedicated to the 80’s or I’ll go googling and lastly, I’ll wind up on discogs and youtube. Some days are winners and other days are a shit show. Considering we’re so far removed from 80’s musically, most days fall on the latter. However, on the the good days it’s fucking great! For those who don’t know me well or for you who do, you might be wondering why I consistently look for this kind of music, well it’s not just because of my age, it’s because the music was better, the bands were hungrier and that era was just incredible for me all around. I think it was last year or the year before, a friend had mentioned he had some albums to sell, so naturally I jumped and asked for the list. There were several killer albums in the stack and a few that I wasn’t very familiar with, so peeped some on the trusty youtube and some I just added to the pile because the names were cool. Among the youtube winners was a band called Sittin’ Pretty and their self-titled album. After the youtube session, I knew these guys were 100% legitimate 80’s Metal! The cover alone screamed of the 80’s – a cute blonde with big hair, long legs, high heels and a Vette!
Right off the rip, Sittin’ Pretty unload a ton of sticky sweet goodness with “Lola’s Place”, an ode to a favorite bar, a pretty girl and the coming of age in that specific bar. I really dig the melody lines and hooks, they pair perfectly with vocals. From there we run head first into “Sweet, Sweet Love” another track loaded to the gills with some sick riffing and some sweet melodies, the lead break isn’t too shabby either – very reminiscent of early Eddie Van Halen. “China Died” is a pseudo ballad if you will, not necessarily sad or what have you. I suppose the track could be considered a eulogy, it’s pretty decent given it’s not a straight up love song, not many tunes out there like this, I can appreciate it for that reason alone. And that leads us to “Rock N’ Roll Boys”, it’s everything you thought it would be – sleazy, tongue in cheek and typical; I’m loving it! The track that really grabbed my attention was “Stay with me”, yes, it’s a cover song originally released by The Faces! Has the song been covered a million times, yes, but I gotta say these guys nailed it on every level. Plus this specific album was released in 1988, so let’s be fair and say these guys were one of the earlier bands to cover it, that’s my story anyway. Musically, the band didn’t change much if anything with the song, just a straight cover but they injected their own attitude/feel and weight to it – which is where a lot of bands fail in the cover department.
Sadly, Sittin’ Pretty never crossed over and made it big due to lead vocalist, Tommy Lee dying in a car crash. Quite sad in my opinion, these guys really had it what it took to make it. By today’s standards this album is what we would call an independent release, it was pressed on a small indy label that’s long gone, the only way to get the record is on eBay, discogs or you can google yourself silly and quite possibly sell one of your kidneys to get it. However, if you’re still into cd’s, one of my new favorite labels Demon Doll Records recently reissued it with four bonus tracks! I haven’t picked it up yet, but I have every intention of doing so, those extra tracks have to be killer, because this album is just that damned good! You can sample all the tracks on demon doll’s site, before you purchase, I strongly suggest checking them out, you won’t be sorry – the cover of “Stay with me” is worth the price of admission alone!
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