Released on 26th June 2026 via Fearless Records was Dear God by American hard rockers The Pretty Reckless. The album was produced by Jonathan Wyman, Taylor Momsen (vocals) and Ben Phillips (guitars).
While offering comment on the new release, vocalist Taylor Momsen shares the whole idea behind the album’s title track:
“Dear God is desperation set to music… When life gets that physical, that brutal, you leave your body and start begging something bigger than yourself to pull you out. That space between heaven and hell isn’t a metaphor. It’s somewhere you actually live.”
As I listen to the album in full, I can really hear, see and feel what Taylor Momsen is talking about around the whole album inspiration. This piece of work is like reading a candid biography or getting engrossed in a deeply personal film, where you can feel everything the protagonist is going through. So, let’s get stuck into the tracks that spoke to me the most.
My first highlight track has go to be ‘For I Am Death’; it’s just the pure and uncensored rock and roll vibes, mixed up with that dark and gloomy influence that we all love when it comes to Rock Music; it just makes for a catchy track that doesn’t hold back on attitude. All throughout the track I can hear that “I don’t give a damn” swagger that has come to define both The Pretty Reckless and Taylor Momsen. My second highlight track is ‘When I Wake Up’, simply because of how free spirited this track sounds and feels, featuring carefree lyrics like “When I wake up, I don’t know where I was last night…..FUCK!”. Again, out comes that rebellious swagger.
My third highlight track is ‘Spell On You’. I’ve picked this track specifically because of my love for anything and everything spooky, so the fact that The Pretty Reckless have come up with a really old-school sounding track that fully leans into that witchy vibe is just so cool. I can absolutely see this song going straight on to my Halloween playlist, which makes perfect sense when the track is crammed with lyrics like “If I were a witch, I would make a brew, and make you pay for the things you do, I’d put a spell on you”! I just can’t help but find this super catchy and it’s something that just speaks to me on a personal level.
As I mentioned earlier, I totally agree with Momsen on how this whole album is a truly spiritual experience; it’s soundtracking the whole purgatory of are you in heaven or hell and still having to push through and try to live your life. With lyrics like “Dark days are coming, so the Bible says, you’ll see them running, when the sky turns red” from the track ‘Dark Days’, this album is something incredibly personal – our lives can be anything from torture to paradise (and anywhere in between), and it’s rare that we actually get to control which it becomes. Dear God has it all, combining rock and roll attitude with raw emotional weight; I absolutely adore how Momsen and the band weren’t afraid to dabble and explore the worries and woes that most of us will have to navigate at some point in our lives. Everyone questions their reality and purpose, so having this feeling conceptualised in music is somewhat cathartic. I adored Dear God and I can’t wait to see what other journeys The Pretty Reckless will bring us along for in the future.
