Cassette Review // PREE "Status/Post" (BLIGHT. Records)

$6 //
Edition of 100 //
https://preemusic.com/album/status-post-2 //

Loud guitar notes ring through to start this cassette by PREE.   The singing has this country / folk vibe to it but it's also electronic and these beats just seem to take up the entire space of the song.   This just rings out so big and so much unlike any artist not named PREE.   Bits of Polly Scattergood are in this, which only makes me like it that much more.   This could be some kind of 1990's collaboration between PJ Harvey and Cowboy Junkies.

It has just such this great groove within the beats.  It's something you can move to, but maybe not dance, just move in a way like you really twist your body.   They make these ribbons that go on the end of a stick and when you twirl them they go in a circle kind of like a tornado (I obviously have no idea what they're actually called) and the music kind of reminds me of that movement in some ways.     This also has really gone down that "more music than vocals" hole as well.

A little sharper now, the pace picks up and we're somewhere between Beck and one of those radio bands like Neon Trees who just has that kind of groove.   The vocals are so unique though this just sounds like PREE to me and if you've been following along like you should you will feel the same way.   Elements of a band like Letters to Cleo come in as well, maybe a little Lucious Jackson.

On the third song the beats ring through like hip hop.    This goes into this dreamy, Amy Winehouse type of feel which is somewhere between sad and the music from the era of Buddy Holly, which mostly seemed to be upbeat right?    There is still some ringing in here but it just drives home the point and it has this grinding of these electric keys that I love.   It's just somewhere between rock, R&B and most importantly perhaps it has a lot of soul.

The flip side offers up some soul like Macy Gray and that sort of idea (shout out CBR) and it's just so fresh and it's just so different and it's just so good.    We get into this mechanical song which screeches on through and it has quite the industrial feel but still with that soul, so it's kind of odd to think of that radio hit like "Put Your Records On" being remixed by Trent Reznor but PREE just makes it work.

Guitars really drive through and PREE shows that as much as they can combine genres to form their own sound they can also just flat out rock when the time comes as well.    It can feel a little pop at times, like No Doubt, but it has such this overall feeling of something you'll only hear from PREE that you'll know PREE is not a band but an entire movement and it is a movement which you should be involved with and proud of at the same time.