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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Pretty Little Head
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
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.
Also By This Artist: Get Away From Me
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
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...
Entertainment Weekly
Not every moment is essential, but compromise just isn't part of McKay's dazzling, defiant repertoire.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Sure, McKay is a sonic chameleon, but perhaps more important, she is one deft (and witty) songwriter/musician. [14 Jan 2006]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
The more I listened, the more beguiling it became. [Dec 2006, p.93]
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.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Candy-coated and a teensy bit tart, Pretty Little Head grows in delight with every bite.
Read Full Review >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]
Alternative Press
What... is immediately evident is the extent to which McKay has grown as a musician. [Feb 2006, p.130]
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]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Who knew that your grandparents' record collection could produce something so sassy?
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
