by Melissa Webster
With a “… laser focus. Firing on all cylinders” the prettiest men in rock n roll, Glam rockers Prima Donna have done it again with the release of their latest album Nine Lives and Forty Fives. Fast, edgy, in-your-face with an attitude, this album lets us know without doubt they don’t give a shit about who they insult or what the world thinks of them, because it’s just the nature of rock n roll and the musician’s life on the road amid one-night-stands, groupies and the next gig. It’s bold, brash and beautiful, and I’m loving every minute of it.
Riding on the coattails of Prima Donna’s latest gig at the Sundance Film Festival in January, followed by a record release party at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, Nine Lives and Forty Fives opens with a hard edge, sex-driven drum beat titled “Pretty Little Head,” the first single release from the album. It tells the story of a girl who “wanted some” because she “came from none,” and got more than she bargained for, quickly finding herself in over her head. The guitar riff sets the tone for the entire album and lets the audience know she’s in for even more misery, because they’ll never give up or give in.
Track Two is a throwback rock song called “Deathless” confessing he burned the bridge that would have made her “someone” and warns her to “leave real soon” before it destroys her, because he never had faith in her anyway, making his actions essentially a preemptive strike.
“Born Yesterday” is the first real dance song with a great sing-along in the chorus. But it is the lyrics that reinforce the mockery in the tone throughout the album, treating with contempt someone who was naive and gullible and easily fooled, “you keep on living out a bad, bad dream,” while confessing their first sign of even a smidgen of remorse in the “sad, sad scene” of its aftermath. Though they admit they get tired of the victim asking “why, why, WHY?” and indifferently “walk away.”
A dance tune with a surfer rock vibe and a great beat, “Living In Sin” mocks Prima Donna’s upbringing in the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley amidst the hypocrisy that paid lip service to religious values and self-righteous, do-gooder hyperbole. Another single released from this album, it’s the best dance song in the mix.