"Not Pretty Enough" | ||||
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Single by Kasey Chambers | ||||
from the album Barricades & Brickwalls | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 14 January 2002 | |||
Length | 3:20 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Kasey Chambers | |||
Producer(s) | Nash Chambers | |||
Kasey Chambers singles chronology | ||||
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"Not Pretty Enough" is a song by Australian country singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers, produced by her brother Nash Chambers for her second studio album, Barricades & Brickwalls (2001). It was released as the album's third single on 14 January 2002 in Australia as a CD single. It became a number-one hit in Australia the same year, and it also found success in New Zealand, where it reached number four. In the United States, it was serviced to adult album alternative radio in late January 2002.
The song was written by Chambers as a commentary on the reluctance of commercial radio stations towards playing her music, despite her being an established performer. [1] However, the single prompted Chambers' commercial breakthrough and was most-added song to radio station playlists in 2002. [1]
In 2017, the song was selected for the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia collection of historically and culturally important recordings. [2]
Junkee said, "2009's The Loved Ones, a horror film about an obsessed stalker, put Kasey Chambers' hit in the mouth of its villain. But it wasn't subverting the song; it was just making the subtext into text. "Not Pretty Enough" is a ballad about over-stepping boundaries and weaponising self-hatred. The creepiness is already there. It’s a gloriously uncomfortable tilt into the painful things about love." [3]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Not Pretty Enough" | Kasey Chambers | 3:23 |
2. | "These Days" | Powderfinger | 5:16 |
3. | "Tear Stained Eyes" | Jay Farrar | 4:08 |
4. | "Too Long in the Wasteland" | James McMurtry | 4:44 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Australia (ARIA) [9] | 2× Platinum | 140,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
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Australia | 14 January 2002 | CD | EMI | [10] |
United States | 28 January 2002 | Triple A radio | Warner Bros. | [11] |
12 August 2002 | [12] |
Kasey Chambers is an Australian country singer-songwriter and musician born in Mount Gambier to fellow musicians Diane and Bill Chambers. Her older brother is musician and producer Nash Chambers. All four were members of family country-music group Dead Ringer Band in Bowral, New South Wales from 1992 to 1998; Chambers launched her solo career thereafter. Five of her twelve studio albums have reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Barricades & Brickwalls, Wayward Angel, CarnivalRattlin' Bones, and Dragonfly. In November 2018 she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and has won an additional 14 ARIA Music Awards with nine for Best Country Album. Her autobiography, A Little Bird Told Me..., co-authored with music journalist Jeff Apter, was released in 2011.
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