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Pretty Little Head

EMAILPRINTby Nellie McKay

Nellie McKay reviews
78
8.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
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Album Info

Label: Black Dove

Release Date: 31 October 2006

Discs: 2 discs

Genre(s): Singer-Songwriter, Rock, Pop

Summary

The singer/songwriter's sophomore set (delayed for a year due to an acrimonious split with her record label) includes collaborations with k.d. lang and Cyndi Lauper.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Entertainment Weekly

Not every moment is essential, but compromise just isn't part of McKay's dazzling, defiant repertoire.

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90

Billboard

Sure, McKay is a sonic chameleon, but perhaps more important, she is one deft (and witty) songwriter/musician. [14 Jan 2006]

88

Los Angeles Times

Adding some range to the offbeat persona she presented in 2004's "Get Away From Me," McKay comes on as a Harlem Holly Golightly, a twentysomething social activist with a disarming mastery of pop vernacular -- pop in the broadest sense, embracing cabaret, show tunes, old standards and a bit of '70s rock in the vein of Elton John and Cyndi Lauper.

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83

Stylus Magazine

It's the same McKay on Pretty Little Head. Still the same pretensions, still the same confusions, still the same ability to overcome her own self-imposed handicaps to put out an absolute killer of an album.

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80

NOW Magazine

She's bewildering.

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80

Paste Magazine

The more I listened, the more beguiling it became. [Dec 2006, p.93]

80

All Music Guide

Pretty Little Head sounds like a record from a woman coming out of girlhood -- more confident, more wise about love, and more focused about her concerns, if no less passionate.

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80

PopMatters

Candy-coated and a teensy bit tart, Pretty Little Head grows in delight with every bite.

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80

Blender

Though she seems to be done with rapping, her hip-hop loops and restless genre-mixing still save her from vintage-dress purgatory. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.94]

80

Alternative Press

What... is immediately evident is the extent to which McKay has grown as a musician. [Feb 2006, p.130]

80

Spin

That she succeeds on a record as sophisticated as the self-produced Pretty Little Head is not only a testament to McKay's talent, it's also a tribute to her artistic sense. [Jan 2006, p.90]

75

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Shed of a few tracks, Head would be a more top-to-bottom pleasing album, but it wouldn't be McKay's album.

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75

Prefix Magazine

The stream-of-conscious raps that peppered her debut have been scaled back, replaced by relatively more traditional compositions, but the music is still deliciously unpredictable, and the words are a pack of SweeTart poetry.

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74

Pitchfork

Pretty Little Head is better than her debut. It's less showy, more confident, tighter, lacking antics-- it's confounding stylistically, just as her debut was, but less an act of throwing ideas at the wall.

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70

Rolling Stone

Who knew that your grandparents' record collection could produce something so sassy?

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70

Hartford Courant

McKay's voice is the real treat as she trips gaily from airy on "Pink Chandelier" to the vocal equivalent of a furrowed brow on "There You Are in Me."

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30

Austin Chronicle

It's one thing to be eclectic; it's another thing entirely for an album to lack a cohesive conceit that connects one track to all the others.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John R gave it an8:
Got the album a little while ago, and as always, I'm not listening hard to begin with. For now, it's just background for work or play. Music, voice, and a few words come through, and as of today, it all sounds great. But if this album is like Get Away From Me, I'd better not listen too carefully to the lyrics or that 8 rating will drop.

Reuben F gave it a7:
Nellie McKay combines being a little too girly cute for some with being a little too feminist for others, with a dash of anti-Norah Jones piano tinkle and a stand-up comic sense of fun. An artist to watch in coming years - she hasn't quite found herself yet.

Giles B gave it a7:
great album let down by one or two really annoying tunes

Jane K gave it a10:
The best album of the year hands down

Casey W gave it a10:
Nellie is perfect and can do no wrong.

Nelliefan McKay gave it a10:
What a fantastic album!!!!! It should have been released a year ago on Columbia, but it is well worth the wait. Get Away From Me was a terrific record but this one tops that. It really shows Nellie's progression as an artist.

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