Taylor Momsen was Cindy Lou Who in the 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas before she was a rock singer, and The Pretty Reckless spent years having to outrun that. Mainstream rock radio settled the question fast. "Heaven Knows" was the band's first song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and held No. 1 for four weeks in 2014, and "Messed Up World," "Follow Me Down" and "Take Me Down" all followed it to the top. A second streak started in 2020 with "Death by Rock and Roll," "And So It Went" and "Only Love Can Save Me Now." Then "For I Am Death" reached No. 1 in November 2025, their eighth, and Billboard noted that no woman-fronted group or woman soloist had more in the chart's 44 years. They had been tied with Halestorm before that.
"For I Am Death" is also on Dear God, the band's fifth album, which Fearless Records released in June 2026 with "When I Wake Up" as its lead single. Momsen and guitarist Ben Phillips co-produced it with Jonathan Wyman, and reviews pointed to how far it wanders over its fourteen tracks: funk on "Rollercoaster of Life," a slow seventies-style groove on "Dark Days," and "Life Evermore" interludes placed out of order through the record.