Emotions (The Pretty Things album)
| Emotions | ||||
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| Studio album by The Pretty Things | ||||
| Released | 18 April 1967 | |||
| Recorded | Philips Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Freakbeat, psychedelic pop | |||
| Length | 32:14 (original) 63:07 (2001 reissue on Repertoire) |
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| Label |
Fontana Records (original UK release) Star Club Records (original German release) Repertoire Records (2001 Germany CD reissue) Victor Entertainment (2007 & 2008 Japanese CD reissues) |
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| Producer | Steve Rowland | |||
| The Pretty Things chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Emotions is the third album by the English rock group The Pretty Things, released in 1967.
The sessions for Emotions were spread across a few months during which there were major changes in the band's line up. Their record company Fontana had not been happy with how their three 1966 singles "Midnight to Six Man", "Come See Me" and "A House in the Country" had sold. For the latter single, Fontana assigned them producer Steve Rowland who was producing hits for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich hoping that Rowland would help the band regain a commercial sound to improve sales. The band were not pleased by this intervention and were keen to leave Fontana, so they simply went along with Fontana's demands to fulfil the contract which included a third album.
Sessions for Emotions began towards the end of 1966. The first result, "Progress" was released as a single in December 1966. This featured the band with a brass section, and, though commercial, it failed to sell.Brian Pendleton was unhappy with the direction the band was heading in, and, with money being rather short, he quit the band that Christmas. A month later, bassist John Stax, similarly unhappy, also quit the band. Phil May called upon a childhood friend Wally Waller whose band The Fenmen had recently split to help record the rest of the album. In the event, Waller took over the bass duties and brought in the Fenmens' drummer, Jon Povey who was also a keyboardist. Waller and Povey were huge Beach Boys fans and between them had developed their own distinctive harmonies which when paired with Phil May's vocals gave The Pretty Things a new dimension.
The band's old R&B style was barely present as Phil May and Dick Taylor wrote songs of a more whimsical nature, going for a more adventurous pop style displaying a definite Ray Davies influence. Steve Rowland decided the new songs sounded rather empty so he enlisted arranger Reg Tilsley to write and conduct orchestral arrangements for most of the tracks. Again, the band were not pleased by this but to appease Fontana and be able to break free, they went along with the idea. Tilsley was given tapes of demos and work in progress of the songs and wrote the arrangements. Some were fairly simple, requiring a brass section, whilst others were more elaborate, bringing in strings.
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