At last, a brand new album from the legendary outfit, The Heads.
'yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell' is their first new material for 20 years.
It will be released almost 30 years on from their seminal debut “Relaxing With”, this will be their fifth studio album proper.
The band are a well established though reclusive part of the UKs underground / cult psychedelic rock scene. A constant four piece, they also perform/record in their own projects; Paul Allen/Anthroprophh, Simon Price/Kandodo and Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan are both now in Loop.
The album was recorded over three days whilst the Heads were rehearsing for a couple of live dates with their friends, and peers, Mudhoney. The guitars, drums and bass were laid down live in Bristol, over-dubs added and then mixed/produced by John McBain in Portland.
Initially planned as two single albums, (Volumes 1+2) it soon made sense that they should be put together as a double LP.
Named in a nod to the Stooges' Raw Power classic 'Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell', it describes the trajectory we're all on.
The Heads are renowned for their brutalist take on psychedelic rock, this new album shows how much they have absorbed from their years of existence, their peers and the world around them. Not much change though, they haven't mellowed out.
The pummel is there, the spaced out sike zones are there, there’s wigged out guitar solos that will peel the paint off the walls, there’s even pop songs if you look/listen hard enough. John McBain has done a grand job in fine tuning the noise and sonic assault.
It's hard to draw a direct “for fans of “ list, because ultimately this album is for fans of The Heads.
However, you can trace the DNA of this album back to the Stooges, Hawkwind, 13th Floor Elevators, Can, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet, Loop, Spacemen 3, MC5 etc. all squeezed through The Head's heavy sonic blender.
A band that only ever existed on the fringes, "if you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space''.
Life and jobs got in the way a bit but hey, at least that kept it pure.
'One chord, three pedals, six years' was an old mantra of theirs. They've pushed that to 'three chords, double album, 20 years'.
Don't expect another.
notes from Simon Price about the album........
The lyrics reflect a despair at what we, the human race, has done, is doing and will do. Not only to ourselves and to each other but also to the delicate balance of our ecosystems, Gaia, Mother Earth. The creatures and critters really don't deserve us.
But it seems it's so much easier to kill than to create. We're crap custodians, quick to destroy habitats and homes rather than to nurture our inter-connected futures.
Playing loud guitars, creating beautiful noise, gives us release, escape from the mundanities of life. Screaming into the void. Know that doesn't really help much but it's better than nothing.
your pretty place is going to hell, Raw Power from a lost age of comparative innocence.
'what've we done? Made it for nothing? The race was won but can't stop the rushing?' The money machine chews it all up,spitting out diminishing returns, ever increasing pain and poisoning our planetary home.
'So many lives in concrete hives' This is progress? We've lost our connections to the 'Vast One', forgotten that we are a part of the greatest whole. 'Chopping it down, delicate balance.'
if only plastic would rust
Music allows us to vent some frustrations of powerlessness, confusion, anger, of living in a world run by egotistical greedy old men. 'Cos it's always been this way' Does it have to be this way? is this it? really?
we, humanity, are the plague that will choke our planet, the only animal that kills for fun.'The only hope is in the trees, bullets fly but no bees'
in 5000 years, a flicker of a candle in space's eternity, we have managed to go from caves to the moon and yet seemingly get nowhere.
Everybody knows we got nowhere.
Animals adapt or die, only we haven't/can't adapt to our environment, still gathering in excess and hunting wealth to the detriment of all else.
'The earth/the planet, the future is gold/sold'
yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell
Wars rage endlessly, driven by vain ancients, warped realities, climate collapse, greed and desperation.
The innocents are at best ignored, at worst destroyed.
It's not all doom, gloom and pessimistic rantings; shyness, love and loss are also covered.
We know everything and yet have seemingly learnt nothing. snafu
'the less you know, the more that you say' there's a 'post truth' media slop overload,
AI can only speed the descent, junked up food for primitive brains.
wanna just shut out the noise,
so we plug in, bang the drums, hit the fuzz
Apparently we want to go to Mars and beyond but cannot see what we've already got, heaven in a wild flower.
Not to worry, we're fucked, but, hey, we've got enough distractions, such as making this album, so we can ignore that iceberg dead ahead.
yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell
pre-apocalypse blues of rhythmic fuzz and acid rock.
This album will be the soundtrack to navigate 2026.
Released on the Vernal Equinox (March 20th 2026)
TRACK LISTING
Side A
1 Hits Like A Dove
2 Cardinal Fuzz
3 Can't Stop The Rushing
Side B
4 It's About Time...and Space
Side C
5 On
6 Snake Oil
7 Sunquaker
8 Socially Awkward
Side D
9 Entropic Dissolution
10 Bullets Fly But No Bees
11 It's All Over Now Sunshine
12 Off
