Pretty Boy Floyd – Public Enemies

Pretty Boy Floyd have just released their fourth studio album Public Enemies via Frontiers Music s.r.l., their first full length studio release since 2004. Cast your mind back to the late eighties, when hair was high, and trousers were so tight that voices were even higher! Hollywood, 1987, enter Pretty Boy Floyd a glam metal band with Steve Summers on vocals and Kristy Majors on guitars, a few line-up changes and periods of inactivity (bio here) see Summers and Majors reunited again for a new album Public Enemies recorded at Highway To Hell Studios and produced by Kristy Majors & Keri Kelli.

I cast my own mind back to 1989 when I bought their debut album Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz which is currently languishing under the bed in my spare bedroom, along with all my other gems from that era, but without a working stereo I haven’t listened to the album for years. I still remember seeing the video to the song Rock and Roll (is gonna set the Night on Fire) on Headbangers Ball with Steve Summers in traffic stopping red leather. Will the passage of nearly thirty years have put that fire out? I didn’t get a vinyl copy to spin on my turntable this time, just downloaded and played on my computer, but you can get a copy on vinyl if you want to. Opening track S.A.T.A. is a short introductory track with a marching drumbeat and melodic Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz style woah, oh, oh, ohs, and plucked guitar strings which lead nicely into the machine gun, Iron Man (Black Sabbath) guitar style opening bars to Feel The Heat which soon becomes a punky number reminiscent of Anti Pasti’s Viva Che, which also includes the lyrics ‘Feel the heat’.

I’m not going to cover every track, just some observations and similarities I pulled out. On first listen I was reminded of bands from the eighties era like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Guns N’ Roses. Steve Summers has one of those high pitched, cat being strangled voices, think Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe), Taime Downe (Faster Pussycat), Dizzy Dean Davidson (Britny Fox), or Lizzy Devine (The Cruel Intentions) which lend themselves well to sleazy glam rock! High School Queen has a  Fallen Angel by Poison vibe. We Can’t Bring Back Yesterday a classic style ballad think something along the lines of Wind Of Change by the Scorpions with a Mötley Crüe twist in the tale (or tail)! We Got The Power had me thinking Reckless Love meets Poison. Do Ya Wanna Rock think Reckless Love meets Michael Schenker Group’s Armed and Ready.  Run For Your Life reminded me of Britny Fox say Long Way To Love.

Shock The World was a nod back to their own Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz days and includes the lyric ‘Leather boys. Electric dolls’. Star Chaser their take on groupies has a Mötley Crüe vibe, there’s a surprise! The album ends with a cover of So Young So Bad a track from Starz‘ 1978 album Coliseum Rock. A good cover played in the same style although it’s a little disconcerting when middle aged men are singing about 15 year old girls being ‘So young, so bad but so good to me’ but hey it’s not their song so they didn’t write the lyrics!

If you liked them back in the early days and you’re a big fan of Hair Metal bands like Poison, Mötley Crüe, Britney Fox and Reckless Love then dig our your spandex, backcomb your hair (if you still have any) to within an inch of it’s life and have a listen. Some bands diversify over the years, some for the better, some not so, but with Public Enemies Pretty Boy Floyd have remained true to those backcombed roots. Rock and Roll did set the night on fire and I’m still feeling some of that heat today!

Highlight Track: Feel The Heat

Track List:

1. S.A.T.A.
2. Feel The Heat
3. High School Queen
4. Girls All Over The World
5. American Dream
6. We Can’t Bring Back Yesterday
7. We Got The Power
8. Do Ya Wanna Rock
9. Run For Your Life
10. Shock The World
11. Paint It On
12. 7 Minutes In Heaven
13. Star Chaser
14. So Young So Bad (Starz cover)

Band Members:

• Kristy Majors – Guitars, Bass, Background Vocals
• Steve Summers – Vocals & Background Vocals
• Chad Stewart – Drums & Back Ground Vocals
• Keri Kelli- Background Vocals

Links:

Website: http://www.prettyboyfloydband.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prettyboyfloydofficial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PBF323