Single Review: Pretty

Rain is the music making moniker of Wellington artist Cathy Elizabeth. She has been active since 2018, collaborating with producer Thomas Te Taite to create songs that are genre fluid, but all wrapped around the singer songwriter heart.

Elizabeth uses her lived experience to inform her writing, giving it an earnest and universal appeal. Pretty is her latest offering, veering into a more rock oriented sound than previous work.

The track is an upbeat pop-punk dedication to a new relationship and the well-structured and stable chord progressions draw from the likes of Green Day and the legacy of London punk with an approachable bubblegum vibe infused into the sharp and stark progressions. The vocal  melodies are fun and engaging, harnessing singalong-ready refrains.

Pretty opens with muted electric guitar arpeggios  and after moving up the dynamic into muted chords with distortion and sizzling guitar choruses, it comes back down to the arpeggios for the bridge, but cuts into the earlier pattern with pauses that add a nice bit of tension before the onset of the final chorus. The crescendo packs in call and response with gang vocals against a head banging, snare-lead blast beat, bringing up the energy to punctuate the repeated “pretty” refrains for a satisfying payoff.

Rain has said it felt good to write a positive love song in this playful and punchy style and the enthusiasm for her new approach shines through on Pretty. You can expect more singles in this vein and an upcoming rock themed EP.