Pretty Soily Company is the brainchild of French musicians Olivier Bonneau and Henri Vaugrand, and when I played Tribal Crimes from their self-titled debut album on my Progzilla Radio show recently, it is fair to say it went down a storm.
Independent French label, Vallis Lupi are responsible for the release, and you can take yourselves to https://vallislupi.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-soily-company to grab a couple of listens before parting with your hard-earned cash.
What we have here is a psych delight, and you will hear The Beatles and The Floyd as primary influences, but there is more to it than that, because we also have some expansive symphonic passages together with the sort of post new romantic and punk music which asserted itself in the 1980’s as a fresh art rock movement, proving to us music lovers that the decade contained some fascinating and adventurous music outside the commercial mullets. There are five tracks, and the album includes one of those uber-epic tracks, In the Shades, that us progheads simply love to drool over.
So, let’s discuss a fascinating album of two distinct sides.
We start with We Reverse. It reminds me of a sort of bizarre cross between Wings, 10CC, and Cockney Rebel, but I drink that sense in deeply. The song is bright, tuneful, with some wonderful funk lines created on the bass guitar, the vocals quietly insistent, a gorgeous guitar lead which is instantly Floydian. The pair play all instruments themselves, and they are the type of maddening clever people us ordinary folk can only really marvel at and admire.
This is followed by Upside Down, and I love the pastoral guitar which opens it, another gorgeous bass melody, and taken directly from a Beatles playbook, a loving tribute to that era.
As I stated at the top of this review, Tribal Crimes is the song I chose to play on my Progzilla Radio show, and I embed it here for those readers negligent enough not to have listened to it (but available on podcast for you!). The drum riff throughout is simply brilliant, a perfect foundation to a thoughtful piece of music, the vocals to these ears having a very strong new wave, post punk influence in a piece of modern psych which grows on one, the final minute quite anthemic in its insistence on those maniacs attacking innocent people to leave us alone, the guitar solo crying with emotion to close, the closing seconds allowing the listener space to appreciate the depths to which we descend.
Get Out of Here follows. It is one of those tracks which can put across an emotion of frustration or anger without having to make a racket about it and is a good example of this act’s ability to put together a personal commentary wrapped in a pop rock bubble which pleases.
In the Shades closes off Side One for us, a commentary on climate change, and musically a lovely paeon to those days when Ultravox, Sylvian, and Tears for Fears ruled the roost.
And so, to Side Two. A Scent of Ohelo Berry, over twenty-two minutes of music drawn together in that classic collage of jams and themes beloved by the likes of Genesis on Suppers Ready, bringing together disparate ideas and concepts into a coherent whole to the listener. Each year, this website has a “Topographic Oceans” award, named after, of course, the four tracks on four sides presented to the shocked record buying public back in the day, and the award is presented to those artists who are capable and brave enough to bring us the longest form music in a manner which doesn’t just make us admire, but is enjoyable as well. It is a sure-fire certainty that this track is in consideration for the award, a joy from start to finish. There are nine sub-units to the track which I believe is named after a Hawaiian plant and its fruit. Three of them are instrumental passages written by Bonneau, and the opener is the first of them, with clever soundscapes drawing you in subtly with keys which are a mix of the classic Floyd and modern electronica. Contrast this with the start of the second movement, featuring a gorgeous pastoral guitar and emotive vocals, and you are now hooked, appreciating the art of putting together a longform song in this manner. Not many acts can get away with it. This duo carries it off with aplomb. Electronica to pastoral to experimental Crimson jazz rock to passages which are the equal of Cosmograf in 2025, heavy psych with a relentless bassline in Torpedo-267 overlaid by a ghostly guitar riff, middle period Beatles folk psych, catchy pop rock pseudo prog of the kind Buggles were so effective at producing in a commercial environment, the rush of second wave of progressive rock which exploded in the UK in the early to mid-1980’s, heavier music which has you head thudding, quietly symphonic, folk rock with shades of Americana, grandiose and cinematic rock, the final instrumental a lovely, touching paeon to Richard Wright and David
Gilmour of halcyon progressive rock to these ears.
It oughtn’t make sense, really, but it does. Pretty Soily Company, subtle and polished (pretty) and a bit dirty and DIY (soily) have produced an album which ranks amongst my favourites of 2025 and comes highly recommended. The second side holds your attention and affection in the manner which will take you back to the days when you fell in love with progressive rock music. I really can’t wait for the sophomore effort.