THE HEADS
Yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell (Rooster)
Credit to the Heads for returning with a double album of typically narcotised/narcotising rock to compensate for being out of the studio for two decades. It’s understandable: once you’ve started kicking out the jams, it just feels too good to stop – and before you know it, you’ve got a cyclical behemoth called It’s About Time … And Space that smoulders for 15 minutes before catching fire for the final five.
The Heads may have found favour across the pond, meeting kindred spirits in the likes of Mudhoney and Wooden Shjips and releasing records through Man’s Ruin and Alternative Tentacles; this new LP is also produced by Monster Magnet founder member John McBai. But the Bristolians are firmly in the British lineage of Spacemen 3, Loop and Hawkwind, and Yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell sounds like an attempt to school Yank space rock upstarts like White Manna.
Subtlety and sophistication may be in short supply, but who cares when the amp walls close in and you’re being flattened by the Sabbath-powered steamroller that is Cardinal Fuzz? Heads heads are going to love it – as are a whole new generation of stoners.
words BEN WOOLHEAD
