Pretty Sick teeter between pain and pleasure on Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile

Pretty Sick’s debut album flickers between these two points. The music itself, whilst nothing particularly new, is broadly energetic and grungy. Fuzzy guitar and bass notes mix with sparring female voices, and the harmonies produced here are frequently glorious, particularly on “Lilith Song.” Sometimes, though, the harmonies sound off-key. This is probably a deliberately jarring choice, but is more unpleasant than boundary-breaking.

The tracklist is varied, drawing from a range of influences. Lead single “Human Condition” bears more than a passing resemblance to Garbage (the band, not the waste product, although the track never reaches the heights attained by the group’s self-titled 1995 album). There are nods to other artists – “Lilith Song,” for example, threatens to break into a full-blown bass cover of The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” – but these feel more like more respectful homages than wholesale reproductions of the source material.

The songs here are short – only album closer “PCP” extends beyond the five-minute mark. Yet despite their length, some tracks lack focus and energy; “Drunk” and “Sober,” for example, offer limited punch. Other tracks display a pleasing degree of control. “PCP” itself is a slow burner that culminates in screamed harmonies and a melodic bassline; “Self Fulfilling Prophecy” builds from a violin base to a crescendo. Indeed, control is something of a theme; it’s just sometimes overused to the point that the listener loses interest.

The highs of Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile are vibrant and energetic. Yet the album’s title itself encapsulates both these highs and the record’s low points. Some tracks merely plod along; others stretch dissonance to breaking point. There’s plenty of potential here, and the group are currently building a fanbase. ‘Group’ is more appropriate than ‘band’ – the musicians who make up Pretty Sick shift frequently, with founder Sabrina Fuentes remaining the only constant (think Mark E. Smith and the Fall). With Fuentes at the helm, she can take this project where she wants to. Let’s look forward to the next ferry voyage, and hope this one doesn’t need a paper bag on standby.