In the past 20 years, Atlanta-based rock band Nashville Pussy has built a moderate fan base with their Southern rock melodies and lyrics revolving around the classic themes of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Their latest album, Pleased to Eat You, plays it safe, despite exploring risqué subject matter.
Pleased to Eat You sticks closely to the short, loud, and fast melodies of Nashville Pussy’s most popular work, and though these tracks aren’t particularly original, they show that the band excels at chicken-fried rock. “Low Down Dirty Pig” and “Hang Tight” are both driven by irresistible hooks that make them the earworms of the album. On “Testify,” the band turns back to their Southern roots with church-inspired rock and a Led Zeppelin-esque organ background. Guitarist Ruyter Suys shines with a killer solo on this track, one of the best on the album.
Suys’s guitar solos comprise many of the album’s finest moments. On “Woke Up This Morning,” her opening riff kicks off the song and carries it all the way through. The lyrics and backing music pale in comparison to Suys’s skill. Likewise, her solo on “One Bad Mother” is the saving grace of the album’s weakest song. At four minutes long, “One Bad Mother,” takes too long to become interesting. Unfortunately, this means that some will end up skipping the song entirely before they have the chance to enjoy Suys’s genius.
“One Bad Mother” is not the only song on Pleased to Eat You that overstays its welcome. “Tired of Pretending that I Give a Shit” has solid vocals and strong guitar riffs but drags on without going anywhere. “Just Another White Boy” starts out promising yet fails to deliver. Similarly, “Endless Ride” is disappointingly tame for a track with clear hard metal influences.
Pleased to Eat You does its best when Nashville Pussy takes risks, which is why the lyrically powerful “Drinking My Life Away” and “Cckmp” stand out as the best songs on the album. On “Drinking My Life Away,” lead vocalist Blaine Cartwright takes center stage with flawless delivery of lyrics like “I guess I’d feel a whole lot worse if I didn’t feel so fucking good.” “Cckmp,” which is short for “cocaine can’t kill my pain,” is the closest thing to a ballad on the album, and conveys heartbreaking loneliness as Cartwright croons, “Don’t come knocking on my door/I don’t wanna see you round no more.” While much of Pleased to Eat You hides raw emotion underneath a devil-may-care attitude, these tracks convey the ugly side of rock-n-roll reality.
Pleased to Eat You is an inoffensive listen, but has too many flat moments to stand out. The band sings about sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll without making music as interesting as the subject of the lyrics. Nashville Pussy’s risks pay off, but they take too few on a record in desperate need of excitement.
I agree this isn’t NP’s best album. A couple things I’d like to point out though: “Testify,” “Woke Up This Morning” and “CCKKMP” are alll cover songs (by George Clinton, Nazareth and Steve Earle, respectively). Also, the openning slide-guitar solo on “Woke Up This Morning’ is performed by special guest Greg Martin (of the Kentucky Headhunters), not by Ruyter Suys. Finally, the lyrics you single out from “CCKMP” are a total cliche, these two lines, or slight variations, being heard in countless songs (“American Woman,” anyone?).
Gotta disagree about “flat moments”: there’s none for me. It’s true that this is more of the same from Nashville Pussy, which is to say it’s another great album. You don’t expect a fine whiskey to change its taste from one bottle to the next, after all. “Woke up this morning” brought me here, and you’re right about Ruyter’s slide guitar work on that track, which is about the best I’ve ever heard. But the rest of the band aren’t to be slighted. The album grooves like a motherfucker thanks to Bonnie, Blaine and Ben’s musicianship. Blaine’s lyrics and the gritty whine of his vocals are right on point too. I think you’re just looking for something to jibe about cos it’s a critic’s job.