Rock Album Review—“Dear God” by the Pretty Reckless

Pretty Reckless—Dear God 

(Fearless Records)

If 2021’s Death by Rock and Roll was an unsparing self-portrait of Pretty Reckless singer-lyricist Taylor Momsen’s descent into depression and drug abuse after the shocking deaths of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and the band’s producer Kato Khandwala less than a year apart, the band’s new album, Dear God, is another musically diverse and emotionally varied group of songs that deal honestly with the consequences of a life lived in excess.

Although recorded in spurts over the past couple years in between world stadium tours as an opening act for AC/DC, Dear God sounds remarkably cohesive. From the slashing chords of “For I Am Death”—one of the band’s most potent slabs of devilish mayhem—to the mournfully hymnal conclusion, “Dark Days,” this powerful exploration of self-abuse, self-denial and self-discovery
explodes from the speakers.

Momsen, who sings and writes the songs with lead guitarist Ben Phillips—who plays in superb lockstep with bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins—has said that the Beatles and Soundgarden are her favorite artists of all time, and the Pretty Reckless’ now-patented blend of grunge influence, heavy-rock riffs and Beatlesque melody, coupled with Momsen’s confessional lyrics and commanding vocal ability, is on display throughout Dear God. 

The irresistible punk-pop sizzle of “When I Wake Up” and the exquisitely soulful prayer “Love Me” give way to the killer Fleetwood Mac-meets-Heart cut “Dragonfire,” which chugs along on Perkins’ propulsive drumming. Then there’s the epic, six-minute title track, a glorious Momsen vocal workout on what she has called desperation set to music; the subtle arrangement, with each verse giving way more quickly to the anguished chorus, underlines that torment brilliantly.

“About You” blisteringly describes an acrimonious breakup, while the seductive “Spell on You” nods back to Death by Rock and Roll’s incendiary “Witches Burn” to defiantly get revenge on a faithless partner. In the stirring “Eye of the Storm,” Momsen opens with a snapshot of universal despair (“Everything has gone to hell/While the rich get rich/And the poor get, well/Nothing at all, it seems to me”) before movingly tackling her own brush with mortality:

Tell the band I’m doing fine

Even though I

Almost died

But I’m still alive, alive, alive

Momsen sings those lines with a quiet poignancy that’s turns into stark defiance. It’s no coincidence that “Devil in Disguise”—a lovely eulogy to actress Michelle Trachtenberg, one of Momsen’s best friends, who died last year at age 39—follows, covering similar emotional territory with equal intimacy. 

Momsen has said that the lyrics for Dear God came from her journal, and it’s true that there are guileless lines like the chorus for “Rollercoaster of Life”: 

The rollercoaster of life is so nice

If you do it well, you can go through it twice

But the song itself is so infectious—and includes a wonderful Easter egg of sorts during the funky middle section, as Momsen sings about “that chili pepper heat” and Mark Damon slyly plays a Flea-inspired bass line—that all is forgiven. Dear God is as candid, aggressive and raw as its predecessor, no mean feat in today’s assembly-line pop and rock world.

June '25 Digital Week I

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Ghost Trail 

(Music Box Films)

French writer-director Jonathan Millet makes his feature debut with this tense, intelligent slow-burn thriller about a Syrian refugee in France who one day notices a man who looks like the person who tortured him in the infamous Sednaya Prison in Damascus. Hamid (a remarkable portrayal by Adam Messa) works as a construction worker in Strasbourg, but once he sees his adversary, he is obsessed with plans for revenge—how that plays out, and how it affects his life and those around him, is dramatized with finesse by Millet, who demonstrates his sympathy for migrants and others marginalized by society without becoming strident.

Ron Delsener Presents 

(Abramorama)

Anyone who went to rock concerts in the New York City area since the late ’60s has probably noticed “Ron Delsener Presents” on the ticket—and this entertaining documentary, directed by Sting’s son Jake Sumner follows Delsener’s storied career as a concert promoter, from his early days working on the Beatles’ 1964 appearance in Forest Hills, through concerts at the Fillmore and the Palladium until today: he was 85 and still going strong when this was filmed a few years ago, attending shows and keeping up with whatever he could. Sumner not only speaks with Delsener, his wife and children—and shows copious archival footage from many iconic concerts—but also colleagues and an array of stars who touchingly remember his guiding hand, from Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel to Patti Smith and Paul Simon.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII 

(Sony Music)

Pink Floyd’s 1972 performance at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii (sans audience) is folded into Adrian Maben’s documentary that’s an artifact of its time, with the Pompeii concert footage supplemented by interviews with Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright as well as glimpses of them at Abbey Road recording Dark Side of the Moon. There’s a surfeit of crude, cliched visuals (split screens, front projection, superimposition, slow-motion) that haven’t aged well—but the film anticipates the MTV video era and remains an eye- (and ear-) opening document of the band right before becoming rock royalty. The Blu-ray release includes the 85-minute film and the 62-minute concert separately; the hi-def video looks good and the superb audio remixed by Steven Wilson is available in Dolby Stereo, 5.1 TrueHD Surround and ATMOS.

Ann Wilson and Tripsitter—Live in Concert 

(Mercury/Universal)

In this 2023 concert, Heart lead vocalist Ann Wilson leads her solo band Tripsitter—with which she released an album, Another Door—through a deftly-balanced set of solo songs, well-chosen covers and classic Heart tunes, including the vigorous opener, “Crazy on You,” the band’s first hit. The 16-song set shows that Wilson, even in her mid ’70s, still sings impressively and with little vocal strain. Heart’s brooding, mystical “Mistral Wind” and John Lennon’s biting “Isolation” let her alternate between lung-shredding power and exquisite delicacy. Of course, Led Zeppelin, one of Ann and Nancy Wilson’s biggest influences, is never far away: Ann pairs the Heart hit “Alone” with “Going to California,” while a powerhouse “Immigrant Song” is Ann at her vocal best. The hi-def video and the audio are excellent, although only a stereo mix is included.

Prokofiev—War and Peace 

(Bayerische Staatsoper)

Sergei Prokofiev’s operatic masterpiece distills the essence of Leo Tolstoy’s massive novel about the 1812 war between Napoleon and Russia into an expressive, emotional 3-1/2-hour music drama. Director and set designer of this 2023 Munich production, Dmitri Tcherniakov, nods to the present conflict between invading Russian forces and defending Ukrainian patriots, but that layer doesn’t detract from the powerful musical storytelling at the heart of Prokofiev’s work. Vladimir Jurowski deftly conducts the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and choruses, while the lead roles of Prince Andrei, Natasha and Pierre are strongly embodied by Andrei Zhilikhovsky, Olga Kulchynska and Arsen Soghomonyan. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio; extras are an interview with Tcherniakov and Jurowski as well as a short featurette.

DVD Release of the Week

The Drew Carey Show—The Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

Standup comic Drew Carey’s eponymous sitcom ran for nine seasons, from 1995 to 2004, giving audiences an alternative version of his real-life persona as an everyman working a menial job in middle America (in this case, Cleveland). Carey and the large cast—including Christa Miller, Kathy Kinney, Craig Ferguson and Ryan Stiles—project a warm appeal that underlines the mild jokes audiences could identify with. All 200-plus episodes are included (excepting four “special” episodes), with some music cues different from the original broadcasts; lone extra is the featurette Life Inside the Cubicle.

Rock Concert Review—The Pretty Reckless at Electric City in Buffalo

The Pretty Reckless

Electric City, 433 Pearl Street, Buffalo, NY

May 6, 2025

theprettyreckless.com

Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless (with guitarist Ben Phillips) at Electric City in Buffalo 

It’s pretty difficult for a rock band to succeed in a musical landscape dominated by streaming singles and assembly-line pop. Even the Pretty Reckless, led by singer-songwriter Taylor Momsen, has been the opening act on AC/DC’s worldwide 2024-25 stadium tour but hasn’t yet broken through to a larger audience.

On an off night from AC/DC, the Pretty Reckless came to Buffalo for an intimate show at Electric City (the old Tralfamadore Café for those who went to shows there in the 1980s, like I did). Opening was the female quartet Plush, whose fervid 45-minute set was highlighted by a cover of Heart’s “Barracuda,” belted out by lead singer Moriah Formica, who has a lot of Ann Wilson in her powerhouse voice. As satisfying as Plush’s straight-ahead hard rock was, it was the Pretty Reckless’ fusion of grunge, metal and Beatlesque melody—Momsen names the Beatles and Soundgarden as her two favorite artists of all time—that everyone came for, and which was on display right from the opening song, the aggressive title track from its latest album, 2021’s Death by Rock and Roll.

As solid as the Pretty Reckless’ output has been—Light Me Up, its 2010 debut, introduced the teenaged Momsen as a talented writer and singer who wore inspirations like Courtney Love, Alanis Morrissette and Fiona Apple on her sleeve; but the next two albums, 2014’s pummeling Going to Hell and 2016’s bluesy and soulful Who You Selling For, made further artistic strides—Death by Rock and Roll is the most musically diverse and emotionally varied group of songs in the band’s career so far. 

Momsen has described how the deaths of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and her band’s producer Kato Khandwala less than a year apart caused her spiral into depression and drug abuse. But the resulting Death by Rock and Roll is an unsparingly honest self-portrait that moves poignantly from denial and anger to, ultimately, acceptance. 

Momsen at Electric City

Surprisingly, in Buffalo the band only played three songs from that record—the title cut, the Soundgarden-like “Only Love Can Save Me Now” and the defiant anthem “Witches Burn.” It would have been great to hear “And So It Went” or “My Bones,” two potent slabs of post-apocalyptic mayhem, though I can see why none of the exquisitely crafted quartet of poignant songs that finish the album was played—they may be too personal, too introspective to fit into a high-energy rock show (although “Turning Gold” is a killer tune with one of Momsen’s best vocal performances).

The rest of the too-short performance (only 11 songs in 70 minutes—maybe they can’t play longer shows while still on tour with AC/DC?) was heavy on tunes from Going to Hell, including the seductive title track and lusty “Follow Me Down.” Also on display throughout was Momsen’s singular stage presence: she sings powerfully but effortlessly while stalking the stage in her combat boots, dancing and spinning to the music as gracefully as if she’s performing a ballet. 

Guitarist Ben Phillips, who writes the band’s songs with Momsen, can create big riffs and play incendiary solos but also knows when to pull back tastefully: he also gets a vocal spotlight in the unsettling duet with Momsen on the marvelously creepy “Sweet Things,” a song that underscores her remarkable facility for marrying the mundane to the macabre. Bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins’ lockstep rhythm section rounds out the excellent instrumental trio that provides the blistering backdrop for one of rock’s most charismatic and compelling singers.

Concert Review—Heart’s Ann Wilson at Sony Hall, NYC

Ann Wilson

July 26, 2022

Sony Hall, New York City

August 2, 2022

AON Grand Ballroom, Chicago

AnnWilson.com

Ann Wilson in concert at Sony Hall, NYC (photo: Criss Cain)

On her current tour—which stopped at New York City’s Sony Hall July 26 and comes to Chicago August 2—Ann Wilson deftly balances the well-chosen covers that dominate her three solo albums, including her fine new Fierce Bliss CD, with classic cuts from Heart, the band with which she and sister Nancy have made their mark since the mid-’70s. (Now on hiatus, as both sisters have released solo albums in the past year, Heart is supposed to return to touring in 2023.)

Opening with the vigorous one-two punch of Heart’s “Even It Up” and “Straight On,” Wilson and her (all-male) band spent the rest of the 90-minute concert alternating between excellent covers—like their powerful versions of Jeff Buckley’s “Forget Her,” the Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” and Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs”—with classic Heart hits like “Magic Man,” “Crazy on You” and “Barracuda.” But it was in the deeper cuts of the evening where Wilson’s still-formidable voice rang out most strongly. (Although she’s now 72, Wilson’s voice remains an imposing instrument.)

On two originals from Fierce Bliss, the pounding rocker “Greed” and the stately “Black Wing,” Wilson sang impressively and with little strain. (It’s instructive to watch her while singing: unlike many rock vocalists, she makes it look effortless, even when hitting the high notes that she can still often reach.) And the lone Heart deep cut, the brooding, mystical “Mistral Wind,” allowed her to alternate between lung-shredding power and exquisite delicacy.

Queen’s “Love of My Life” also brought out Wilson’s ethereal side, as she made her own a song that most vocalists might cede to Freddie Mercury. But Wilson has never shied away from covering songs that others might hesitate to tackle, like her majestic “Stairway to Heaven” at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012. 

And it was Zeppelin—one of Heart’s most obvious influences, as anyone who hears “Achilles’ Last Stand” whenever “Barracuda’s” drum track kicks in—that dominated the encores, as Wilson ran through her superb, singular takes on the mandolin-driven “Going to California” and the pummeling “Black Dog.” One might even go so far as to say that Wilson’s versions surpassed Robert Plant himself on these songs. But that’s an argument for another day.

Weekend in the Berkshires—“Children of a Lesser God,” John Mellencamp, Natalie Merchant

Children of a Lesser God

Written by Mark Medoff; directed by Kenny Leon

Performances through July 22, 2017

Berkshire Theatre Group, Stockbridge, Massachusetts

berkshiretheatregroup.org

John Mellencamp

July 1, 2017

Natalie Merchant

July 2, 2017

Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts

bso.org

There’s so much to choose from while in the Berkshires—music, museums, theater, ballet, historic sites, shopping, restaurants—that it’s impossible to do more than a few things on a weekend trip. This time around it was Children of a Lesser God in Stockbridge, and John Mellencamp and Natalie Merchant concerts at Tanglewood.

Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff in Children of a Lesser God (photo: Matthew Murphy)

Most people remember Children of a Lesser God from the 1986 movie version, which won an Oscar for Marlee Matlin in her sensational debut as a feisty deaf woman who falls in love with the hearing teacher wanting her to read lips and speak, while she stubbornly remains in her sign-language world. Despite its creaky dramaturgy, Mark Medoff’s earnest drama nevertheless works strongly in Kenny Leon’s thoughtful staging on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s stage.

Medoff tackles the themes of miscommunication and the physicality of love between people from (literally) two different worlds: James Leeds and Sarah Norman are shown sympathetically but realistically, rough edges and all. As embodied by Joshua Jackson (whose James is full of vigor and charm) and newcomer Lauren Ridloff (who has an appealing stage presence and dramatic heft as Sarah), our protagonists are a worthy adversarial couple.

Director Leon navigates this relationship sensitively, even if he is occasionally tripped up by Medoff’s central conceit: James repeating whatever Sarah and the other deaf characters sign becomes wearying after two-plus hours. (I don’t remember it being that annoying in the movie.) Still, with two excellent actors at the center—a revelatory Jackson in a demanding role, and a sensational find in Ridloff—Children of a Lesser God is emotionally satisfying theater.

                               *                                   *                                      *

The Tanglewood experience is one of the summer’s finest. Sitting on the lawn for a concert under the stars can’t be beat—especially when you can bring anything onto the grounds for a picnic, which people do: tents and tables, lawn chairs and coolers, hors d’oeuvres and main dishes, wine and beer, fruits and desserts. Add to all of that the most casual vibe of any outdoor amphitheater.

                            

Tanglewood concerts by John Mellencamp and Natalie Merchant were prime examples of still-relevant music of artists unworried that their most popular days are behind them. (But don’t tell that to the thousands who showed up both nights.)

John Mellencamp at Tanglewood (photo: Hilary Scott)

John Mellencamp—who has remarkably morphed from an arrogant young cock-rocker named Johnny Cougar into one of our most perceptive and sympathetic chroniclers of ordinary American lives—played a lean, dynamic 90-minute set that included several of his biggest hits along with more politically charged recent material, like the stand-out trio of songs from his latest album, Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, which he recorded with Carlene Carter, who opened the show.

The lovely harmonizing of Carter and Emmylou Harris—whose fine 45-minute set followed Carter’s—joined Mellencamp for the stately “My Soul’s Got Wings,” and Mellencamp sang a powerfully raspy “Easy Target,” the most trenchant of his current political songs. He even broke out a rousing “Pop Singer,” his 1989 hit about how much he hates being a hit-making jukebox. So it was no surprise that, when it came to “Jack and Diane,” Mellencamp basically told the audience he hates singing it but knows everyone wants to hear it—so he did a solo acoustic version, letting the enthusiastic crowd take over for the “Oh yeah, life goes on” chorus.

But he’s not averse to all of his hits—he and his crack band (including his MVP violinist Miriam Sturm) cranked out hard-hitting renditions of “Pink Houses,” “The Authority Song,” “Paper in Fire” and, for his lone encore, “Cherry Bomb,” which immaculately closed the show.

Natalie Merchant at Tanglewood (photo: Hilary Scott)

Natalie Merchant’s enduring solo career began nearly a quarter-century ago, after she left 10,000 Maniacs, and her latest tour—subtitled “3 Decades of Song”—features many songs of more recent vintage, wildly appreciated by the Tanglewood crowd.

Of course, she did play tunes from her multi-million-selling solo debut, 1995’s Tigerlily: “Carnival,” “Wonder,” “River” and an unbearably emotional rendition of “Beloved Wife,” which was nearly ruined by some in the audience who felt the need to shout out during the song’s many quiet moments. But Merchant and her band—which featured a superb string section that provided lush but not overbearing accompaniment to these singular story-songs—showed their musical mettle right from the starkly beautiful opener “Lulu” from her eponymous 2014 album.

As for political commentary, Merchant waited until her second set—sans intermission, the show spanned 25 songs and a generous 2 hours and 45 minutes—when she introduced the biting “Saint Judas” with the quip that it’s “for all the racists and bigots in Washington D.C.”

For someone who writes and sings many minor-key, downbeat songs, Merchant has always been a buoyant performer: yes, her delightfully daffy dancing, spinning, hand gestures and arm-flailing are still very much in evidence. (By the encores, she had literally kicked off her shoes to run barefoot from one side of the stage to the other.) And she pointedly saved her most joyous songs for the end: a jubilant “These Are Days” gave way to the ecstatic singalong “Kind and Generous,” the perfect summation of another perfect Tanglewood evening.