Taylor and The Pretty Reckless in The New York Times!

Rowdy Muscularity and Sweet Harmonies

Usually it falls to the writers to get a character purged from a network television series, but Taylor Momsen, who plays the naïve manipulator Jenny Humphrey on “Gossip Girl,” appears to be taking matters into her own hands. For the last two years her other alter ego has been as the frontwoman of the Pretty Reckless, a battering ram of a hard-rock band that she has no difficulty steering. “Light Me Up” (Interscope) is the group’s first full-length album, and it’s terrific fun: salacious, convincingly muscular, unnervingly rowdy. Ms. Momsen, 17, comes by her snarl by way of Courtney Love and Lita Ford, drizzles her lyrics with winks at Tina Turner and Kelly Clarkson and never sounds happy on this album for more than a couple of seconds at a time. “Do you have a light?” she purrs on the title track. “Can you make me feel all right/There’s plenty of white to go around.” Were she a Disney star, she’d be fired by now, but “Gossip Girl” writers might be listening closely, harvesting ideas.

source: nytimes.com