Get The Picture?

The Pretty Things' second album, Get the Picture? (released December 1965), has not only been remastered from original session tapes so the group sounds like their amps are practically right in your lap, but it's also been expanded to 18 songs with the addition of tracks cut for singles and EP releases from the same sessions. That's enough to recommend it even to casual fans -- this is now a record that's just a few notches short of Rolling Stones level in the charisma department, and pretty tough any way you want to look at it. On "Rainin' in My Heart," they sound exactly like the Stones from the same era, missing only the little harmonica flourish that might have been added on the break. The liner notes go into the history of the group during this period in delightful detail, and the histories of various songs, most particularly "L.S.D.," which, amazingly, was cut as a demo and never redone for release, but just put out the way it was. In their good moments here, the Pretty Things approach Rolling Stones' territory, and even in their off moments, they're flying at the same level as the Kinks' album tracks. ~ Bruce Eder