The Pretty Reckless released Who You Selling For on October 21, 2016, through Razor & Tie. Their third studio album reunited singer Taylor Momsen, guitarist Ben Phillips, bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins with producer Kato Khandwala. The sessions left room for performances to develop, including songs that changed shape once the musicians started playing together.
Lead single “Take Me Down” connected Momsen’s commitment to music with the crossroads legend associated with bluesman Robert Johnson. She told Screamer Magazine that she had been watching Crossroads while writing it and recognized something of her own life in the idea of surrendering everything for music. That personal connection gave the song’s familiar blues mythology a specific purpose.
Getting the album written required time away from the road. Momsen and Phillips started developing material while touring, then wrote most of the songs during six months after the tour ended, according to NYLON’s 2016 interview. They needed solitude to concentrate, but the songs also had to survive a practical test before the full band heard them. Momsen explained to Icon Vs. Icon that she and Phillips wrote on acoustic guitar, working until they could play a complete song that stood up on its own. Only then did they develop it with the other musicians.
The studio offered a different kind of freedom. “Try not to try” was the approach Momsen described to Icon Vs. Icon: preserve the character of a vocal, drum performance or guitar part, including imperfections that made it feel human. Keyboardist Andy Burton and three backing singers expanded the arrangements, giving the band additional musicians to respond to as the recordings took shape. The goal was to preserve the interaction between players.
“Back to the River” called for one particular guest. Its Southern rock character suggested a slide-guitar solo, and Phillips proposed asking Warren Haynes. In an interview with Harmonix, Momsen recalled that the band approached him and he agreed. Haynes’ contribution became part of the released recording, extending the song’s connection to the music he had played with the Allman Brothers Band.
Other arrangements grew simply because nobody stopped playing. Momsen told Vogue that “The Devil’s Back” had initially been conceived as a roughly two-minute song. The musicians kept going during the live performance, and the finished track ran more than seven minutes.
The album’s sequence gave those different approaches a narrative. Speaking to NYLON, Momsen emphasized listening from beginning to end, pointing to the transition from “Bedroom Window” into “Living in the Storm.” The first song retreats from the world; the next places her inside the turmoil she had wanted to avoid. The change connected an intimate acoustic piece with a heavier song through the perspective of the person singing them. Even the album title resisted a fixed explanation. “It means something different to me every day,” she told the magazine, leaving listeners room to decide what the question meant to them.
That willingness to let songs develop continued onstage. In April 2017, Momsen singled out “The Devil’s Back” to Harmonix as a new direction for the band’s live performances, with improvisation at its center. A studio arrangement that had expanded beyond its original length became an opportunity to keep exploring during shows.
The album also extended their run at rock radio. “Take Me Down” made them the first act whose first four entries topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
