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Pretend I'm Human is an album by the American band Orange 9mm, released in 1999.[2][3] It was a commercial disappointment.[4] Pretend I'm Human was rereleased in 2021.[5]

Pretend I'm Human
Studio album by Orange 9mm
Released	1999
Label	Ng Records[1]
Producer	Neil Perry
Orange 9mm chronology
Ultraman Vs. Godzilla (1998) Pretend I'm Human (1999)

The band supported it by playing the 1999 Warped Tour; they also toured with Machine Head.[6][7]

Production

Recorded in California, Pretend I'm Human was produced by Neil Perry.[8][9] The band abandoned all of its demoed songs once they were in the studio, opting instead to start over.[10] Vocalist Chaka Malik played bass on the album.[11] The lyrics to many of the songs touch on themes of societal power dynamics and class.[12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
Winnipeg Sun	[14]

Exclaim! wrote that "Touching Skies" "may be the best, if not the only, rap-metal power ballad ever."[15] The Telegram & Gazette deemed the album the band's best yet, praising the "rap-inspired grooves, sharper dynamic shifts and overall better chops."[9] The Arizona Daily Star determined that Malik's "words are racy enough to turn a sailor incarnadine, yet his rap is fantastically caustic poetry."[12]

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."[16] The Winnipeg Sun concluded that the "NYC trio manages to weld heavy riffs and hip-hop rhythms without getting them all over each other."[14] 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."[17]

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."[13] 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."[18]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"When You Lie"
2.	"Lifeless"
3.	"Facelift"
4.	"Touching Skies"
5.	"Pretend I'm Human"
6.	"Dragons (You Know I Love You)"
7.	"Innocence"
8.	"Alien"
9.	"Tightrope"
10.	"Day One"

References

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