| Pretend I'm Human | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 13, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | March–April 1999 | |||
| Studio | Mad Dog (Burbank, California) | |||
| Length | 42:37 | |||
| Label | Ng | |||
| Producer | Neil Perry | |||
| Orange 9mm chronology | ||||
| ||||
Pretend I'm Human is the third and final album by the American band Orange 9mm, released on July 13, 1999. [1] [2] It was a commercial disappointment. [3] Pretend I'm Human was rereleased in 2021. [4]
The band supported it by playing the 1999 Warped Tour; they also toured with Machine Head. [5] [6]
Recorded in California, Pretend I'm Human was produced by Neil Perry. [7] [8] The band abandoned all of its demoed songs once they were in the studio, opting instead to start over. [9] Vocalist Chaka Malik played bass on the album. [10] The lyrics to many of the songs touch on themes of societal power dynamics and class. [11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [12] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 6/10 [13] |
| In Music We Trust | B– [14] |
| PopMatters | 8.5/10 [15] |
| See Magazine | [16] |
| Winnipeg Sun | [17] |
Exclaim! wrote that "Touching Skies" "may be the best, if not the only, rap-metal power ballad ever." [18] The Telegram & Gazette deemed the album the band's best yet, praising the "rap-inspired grooves, sharper dynamic shifts and overall better chops." [8] The Arizona Daily Star determined that Malik's "words are racy enough to turn a sailor incarnadine, yet his rap is fantastically caustic poetry." [11]
The New York Post noted that Orange 9mm "is still their hard-core selves on this 10-song collection, which taps hip-hop, industrial and good old-fashioned Stairway-to-Hell metal." [19] The Winnipeg Sun concluded that the "NYC trio manages to weld heavy riffs and hip-hop rhythms without getting them all over each other." [17] The San Diego Union-Tribune stated that "the lurching guitars in the Fugazi-like 'Lifeless', the explosive title track and even the slow build-up in 'Touching Skies', a rather preachy song about self-determination, have a raw, punk edge to them that you won't find in other so-called new metal bands." [20]
AllMusic wrote that, "even if Malik has a better lyrical flow than most rap-metal singers, the results tend to sound stiff and forced when there are no funky backing rhythms for him to play off of." [12] In 2021, Decibel called Pretend I'm Human "extraordinarily eclectic," noting that the reissue "brings the guitars to the fore [to] make it a perfect ahead-of-its-time candidate for reevaluation." [21]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "When You Lie" | 3:01 |
| 2. | "Lifeless" | 3:41 |
| 3. | "Facelift" | 4:11 |
| 4. | "Touching Skies" | 4:57 |
| 5. | "Pretend I'm Human" | 3:48 |
| 6. | "Dragons (You Know I Love You)" | 5:33 |
| 7. | "Innocence" | 7:01 |
| 8. | "Alien" | 3:30 |
| 9. | "Tightrope" | 5:11 |
| 10. | "Day One" | 1:44 |
| Total length: | 42:37 | |
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