Preature Comforts – Gigslutz feature on THE PREATURES

With the combination of frontwoman Isabella Manfredi’s sexy hypnotic vocals and twanging guitars, there’s little wonder Sydney five-piece The Preatures have been building up quite a buzz for themselves in 2013. They’ve already had success Down Under winning the Vanda & Young songwriting prize for their awesome, sickly sweet debut single ‘Is This How You Feel?’ and supporting P!nk on her record breaking tour of the continent, following in the footsteps of bands like The Gossip, City and Colour and The Hives.

Now The Preatures are set to go global. Lining up gigs in New York and L.A. next year and securing a record deal in America, things are looking pretty sweet for the antipodean group. The growing interest in them internationally has helped in drumming up the rivalry between record companies here in the U.K. They’ve been scrapping amongst each other, desperate to secure the band’s signatures. Sensing a shared love for 1970s chart acts such as Fleetwood Mac, critics too have been struggling, though in their case to find someone to liken them to other than HAIM. (Though as far as comparisons go, you can do a lot worse than the trio of Californian sisters.) Featured as The Guardian’s New Band of the Day, writer Paul Lester described their sound as a “sweet fusion of R&B and country” and Pitchfork named ‘Is This How You Feel?’ a Best New Track and declared the song “a mid-tempo, feel-good, groove-based confection that explodes into one of the year’s best choruses.”

In their calling card and best tune, ‘Is This How You Feel?’, The Preatures have an addictive, super catchy number that admittedly reminds you of The Ting Tings in the first 30 seconds, but once you get past that you’re golden. We’ve listened to it at least thirty times here at Gigslutz since starting to try to mash these words together. Simply put, it sounds like summer, blending pop, in-vogue disco, rock and everything in between with a retro video resembling an archive clip from ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’, perfectly packaged for the Topshop generation to eat right up. Coolly styled singer Manfredi is a rockstar-in-waiting, with a voice that can switch like that from cold and fuck off-ish to making you want to give her a cuddle. The sooner the band realise that and push her to the fore the better.

It remains to be seen if The Preatures can deliver on the promise of their first single. The other songs available on their SoundCloud, show potential, even if not as inspired as ‘Is This How You Feel?’, the Bee Gees-infused ‘Manic Baby’ sounding most likely to fill the dancefloor. Why not find out for yourselves when they finally make it these shores for their maiden U.K. shows in London on October 22nd at Madam Jojo’s and Hoxton Bar & Kitchen on the 23rd. We’ll see you in the front row.

Elliott Homer

Elliott Homer

Elliott Homer is an undisputed master of understatement, a black belt holder in mixed metaphors and long-time deserving of some such award for length of time spent chatting rubbish about music down the pub. Studies show prolonged exposure to his scribblings can cause migraines, hysterical pregnancy, night terrors and/or acne, yet seldom encourages readers to agree with the author, in fact quite the reverse, much to his eternal frustration.
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About Elliott Homer
Elliott Homer is an undisputed master of understatement, a black belt holder in mixed metaphors and long-time deserving of some such award for length of time spent chatting rubbish about music down the pub. Studies show prolonged exposure to his scribblings can cause migraines, hysterical pregnancy, night terrors and/or acne, yet seldom encourages readers to agree with the author, in fact quite the reverse, much to his eternal frustration.