Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of THE PRETTY RECKLESS‘s music video for the band’s latest single, “25”, can be seen below. The track is taken from the group’s upcoming album, “Death By Rock And Roll”, which will be released on February 12, 2021 via Fearless Records in the U.S. and Century Media Records in the rest of the world.
THE PRETTY RECKLESS singer Taylor Momsen told Paper about the track: “’25’ is one of the first songs we recorded, I think it was the first song we recorded for the album. I wrote that song when I was 25, [and] we recorded it right after I turned 25. It’s very autobiographical, in a lot of ways. I thought it would be an interesting idea to figure out a way to go through all the years of my life and somehow calculate that and have it end with 25. But the inspiration was really drawn from me just reflecting on my life up until that point, writing this autobiographical song from a place of despair. When I finished writing ’25’, it was a moment where I noticed the shift in my writing. I took a bit of a turn, and I think that I got better.
“On the record, it’s kind of the first musical shift. If you listen to the album from front to back, it starts very heavy and very dark and bleak, and about halfway through the album, it takes a musical shift. There is hope and there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s all very intentional with the track listing. ’25’ is kind of the first indication that there is hope. It was certainly a growing point for me as a songwriter, where I took a step forward.”
“Death By Rock And Roll” is THE PRETTY RECKLESS‘s first album to be made without longtime producer Kato Khandwala, who died in April 2018 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.
A few months ago, Momsen confirmed that RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello guests on “Death By Rock And Roll”. Morello appears on a track called “And So It Went”.
Morello joins previously announced guests Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron from SOUNDGARDEN. The song with Cameron and Thayil, called “Only Love Can Save Me Now”, was recorded at Seattle’s legendary London Bridge Studios, where seminal LPs like PEARL JAM‘s “Ten” and SOUNDGARDEN‘s “Louder Than Love” were laid down.
Momsen told Forbes about “Death By Rock And Roll”: “We worked really hard on this album and we went through a lot of loss, a lot of tragedy, and we really poured our hearts and souls into it and in a way I can’t express verbally. It’s all there in the music, so that’s why I say it feels like a rebirth. It almost feels like the first record in a sense, because we really had to go back to the beginning after losing Kato, our producer. I’m just really excited for people to hear it because, in my opinion, it’s the best album we’ve ever made so it’s hard to sit on this music.
“We talked about holding the song ‘Death By Rock And Roll’ for longer too, and I was, like, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t just sit on this album forever.’ The world needs music and music has such a healing thing to it, and it saved my life, time and time again. If we put out a song and if it can put a smile on some people’s faces, great, we’ll take it from there. That’s kind of what we’re doing — we’re riding the wave. This is just such an unprecedented time so we’re trying to take it step by step, and see where things go. Everything is still up in the air, but we are planning on releasing more singles before the full album is out. There’s going to be more music to come.”
Track listing
01. Death By Rock And Roll
02. Only Love Can Save Me Now (feat. Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron)
03. And So It Went (feat. Tom Morello)
04. 25
05. My Bones
06. Got So High
07. Broomsticks
08. Witches Burn
09. Standing At The Wall
10. Turning Gold
11. Rock And Roll Heaven
12. Harley Darling
