Pretty Sick Balances Extremes in Third Studio Album 'Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile'

Pretty Sick’s third studio album Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile is an indie-grunge explosive that embraces late adolescence with all of its flaws and messiness that take place through New York City’s dive bars, dance floors and alleys. Frontwoman Sabrina Fuentes tackles subjects like unrequited love, substance abuse and heightened spiritual experiences through classic 90s grunge soundscaping, accompanied by the unforgiving riffs of Bikini Kill and an extreme vocal prowess that captivates listeners. 

The album’s musical influences are a clear reference to anyone who grew up listening to Lithium radio or went crate digging through their dad’s record collection. Fuentes cites Courtney Love of Hole and bands such as Breeders and Pixies for being immediate inspirations. The clear-cut influences are best heard on “Drunk” where Fuentes directly mirrors Love’s vocal phrasing from “Violet.”

Makes Me Sick sets the scene in opening track “Yeah You” where Fuentes sings “You’re the roses in Tompkins Square Park” and later confesses that she wishes she was dead and that she would rather die than let her romance go. The track starts off slow, as if mourning a memory of a past life (or lover), then explodes into feverish guitars and wailing layered harmonies of letting go of delusions. Fuentes is caught between two worlds; one where she reminisces on a past life and the other world serving as a declaration for independence and reinvention. She carefully wanders the line between the two. The song touches on finding the balance between romanticizing an old toxic flame and releasing a gripping hold on a situation that deprived her. The push-and-pull effect of “Yeah You” is a throughline that connects finding a balance between obsession and love, self-sabotage and self-love and hatred and devotion that is heard throughout Makes Me Sick. The record’s title itself Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile is a direct reflection of attempting to stabilize two extremes and observes the push-and-pull concept – the I don’t chase, I attract energy. 

“Drunk” sets a darker tone for the album as Fuentes sings of drinking herself into a stupor until she’s caught in a blissful supernova. “Drunk” captures an essence of being forced to hold down a scream until your throat burns – a stinging feeling that is both physically and emotionally merciless. She is able to flawlessly tap into a visceral pain that is expressed best through her raw deliveries and guttural screaming. On the contrary, Pretty Sick’s “Sober” is the confrontation of a heavy feeling since childhood that centers around addiction and trauma running in the family. 

Feelings of suffocation are captured throughout the 12 tracks that are matched with a unique intensity and boundless passion from Fuentes. “Human Condition” is immersed with punk sensibilities, angst and frustration in the center of Fuentes’ intrusive thoughts said out loud. “The freedom you’re being sold is just submission / Wanna keep you content and under supervision / They got you convinced that ignorance is bliss in some ever-changing mind erasing human condition.” The songstress relies on romance and a lover’s touch to feel something again. The crushing confessional is one of her most vulnerable that stands out in the discography. Though Fuentes is loud, she is equally as soft-spoken when voicing her most delicate confessionals.

The energy behind “Heaven” feels like a build-up of emotions waiting to be released. Behind the heavy distortion, there is a web of feelings that Fuentes is untangling and is content with being unapologetic with her black and white emotions. The songstress builds a romantic scene around wearing rose colored glasses and seeing everything beautiful in the world. She says that her and her partner can ride off in the pink sunset and that’s the closest vision to her definition of heaven. “Heaven” escalates into hell when Fuentes confesses that she’ll never let the romance go, even if it kills the both of them. She clings onto a feeling of euphoria before crashing down completely by herself in the lyrics, “I wish you were smarter / But nevermind forget it / I want you so badly / I want you infinite / I need you / But now I regret it / I’m flying.” Once again, Fuentes embraces all imperfections in the contradictory lyricism. 

“Black Tar” takes a surprising turn with its more intimate acoustics and dreamy vocals where the band proves to have many layers and dimensions with engaging melodies and attention-grabbing lyrics such as, “I’ll always be whatever you want / Made specially for your consumption.” Fuentes cracks her vulnerabilities open, loses the shame and finds acceptance within her romantic flings. It’s often hard to make complete sense of shattering emotions, but the songstress paints a scene that deals with the everyday frustrations of twentysomething life. “Black Tar” is the record’s most unexpected track of all – just Fuentes singing acoustic with a bare-bones strummed guitar and a heart full of memories and rawness in its purest form. 

Brutal feminine rage is depicted best in “Bound.” The track is immersed in full-bodied guitar shreds, blown-out, claustrophobic basslines and assertive lyricism. Fuentes excels in creating forbidding atmospheres where she perfectly captures a darker feminine side to herself and the authoritative energy behind her rage. The track instantly puts listeners under a potent sexual spell when Fuentes sings of enjoying when her lover tastes like her – an erotica that’s dominating and destructive. Alongside heavy sonic platforms, Fuentes pushes her wordplay further into a touch of the dark arts and a sprinkle of mystical practices as she talks about her devotee coming to her altar to worship her and kiss her feet all night long. The lyrics “Kiss me with my spell on your teeth / With my blood, I bound you to me,” adds to the expansiveness of the album in its heavy dose of grungy and industrial 90s nostalgia where commanding female voices took center stage. Once she performs a blood binding spell, it's bound so tight the lover can’t breathe and there’s no coming back. Pretty Sick distills the darker side of love that is captivating and hard to keep our eyes off. “Bound” is that touch of obsession and addictive desires that take over that we have to learn to embrace, but eventually have to learn to let go of. 

“Lilith Song” refers to the dangerously beautiful goddess and the first woman created by God according to Judiac folklore. Lilith’s themes are freedom, passion, pleasure and sexuality. Lilith is a goddess who refused to be subservient to the first man, Adam. She took control of her autonomy and viewed herself as equal, making herself the first true liberationist. Pretty Sick takes on the meaning of freedom literally in hinting at substance use through dilated eyes and brains frying. Fuentes reveals that no matter how hard she prays, she turns back to a “spark” that incites a feeling of heaven inside her. 

The raw, visceral energy and emotionally resonant lyrics in “Saturn Return” are in alignment with the western astrology phenomenon of Saturn returning to the degree in its orbit occupied at the time of birth. At that time, a person crosses over a major threshold and enters the next stage of their life. Because Saturn is the planet of responsibilities, time and wisdom, the return marks a new rebirth and the demands to take full accountability After the Saturn return, a person leaves youth behind and enters adulthood, maturity and emotional fulfillment. Breakups and hard-to-swallow relationship lessons are common throughout one’s Saturn returns. Fuentes reflects on the completion of time wasted and unreciprocated energy in her relationships. With flashes of tenderness and confrontational reinforcement, Fuentes’ knack for nihilistic sentiments are ever changing and poignant as she clings to moments of heightened nostalgia that make life worth living. 

Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile’s concluding track “PCP” is an acoustic accumulation that’s saturated in spiritual sensibilities burning throat sensations. Fuentes cries in the back of a club due to unreciprocated love. She flawlessly executes a ballad of misery and loneliness. Through Makes Me Sick follows the throughline of a toxic, yet addicting, push-and-pull relationship dynamic, it comes to a close in “PCP” as Fuentes takes off the rose-colored glasses and observes the situation from an objective standpoint that ended up with her crying in the bar alone. 

Pretty Sick’s Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile is an accumulation of a vulnerable collection of experiences that are heart wrenching, liberating and brutally vulnerable. The album marks an era for death, rebirth and letting go of energies, people, places and situations that no longer serve us. Frontwoman Sabrina Fuentes is constantly evolving and flowing with the world around her and the band’s music will continue to be in alignment with the ever evolving growth happening around them – beyond New York’s dive bars and dance floors. Although Pretty Sick excels in their valiant and dominating soundscapes, the band’s true power lies in transcending into spiritual liberation and their ability to challenge balance between two opposing themes.