![]() Loose Screw (2002) A good listen, but with few peaks. ![]() ![]() It contains not only the Big Berthas but some of Chrissie's interesting side projects: the two duets with UB40 ( I Got You Babe and Breakfast in Bed) and a sublime cover of Jon and Vangelis's State of Independence. Greatest Hits (2000) There had been a rather prosaic hits compilation in 1987, but this is the one you need. Chrissie could have retired, her place in music history secure, but thankfully. Viva El Amor! (1999) Pop Star referenced Kylie Minogue, otherwise little to report. Private Life still sounded like a classic. The back catalogue is invisaged with a string section, as per the ''unplugged'' phenomenon of the day. The Isle of View (1995) Sporting a nice punning title for a nice album, this is the Pretenders' recorded live debut if we discount some guest appearances. Sexual politics, never far away with Hynde, took a controversial turn with 977 (''He hit me with his belt, but his tears were all I felt'') and Night in My Veins (lyrics possibly best not quoted). Last of the Independents (1994) We cheered at this rousing return to form. Packed! (1990) Never Do That was an insipid rewrite of Back on the Chain Gang. If she had kept the players from the previous album this might have had the makings of a worthy offering. Get Close (1986) The Pretenders are a group, sure, but Hynde need no longer pretend (sorry) they are anything but her. Chrissie rarely bettered the barbs contained here, such as: ''I can't get from the cab to the kerb without some little jerk on my back'' ( Middle of the Road). The songs are mostly built around standard blues/rockabilly chords but they are fabulously entertaining. The ultimate Pretenders song and the prime example of Hynde’s flair for a winning melody and a catchy pop hook, “Brass in Pocket” became the first new number one of the 1980s and launched the band to almost overnight fame.Learning to Crawl (1984) With a dead guitarist and a sacked bassist, also now dead, Hynde faced the mother of all battles just to stay in the game. ![]() Hynde’s bold and seductive vocal flipped rock’s traditional male posturing, with her dynamic band providing wonderfully assured backing. Yes, it’s one of those ubiquitous songs so familiar that you probably wouldn’t choose to play it at home very often, but when it comes on the radio or you inadvertently catch the video on the telly or YouTube, you can’t resist its funky swagger. ![]() There’s a beautiful melody, chiming riffs aplenty from Billy Bremner and characteristically warm vocals from Hynde, who celebrates her own resilience on a song that was a hit single in 1982. “Back on the Chain Gang” is both a moving elegy for Honeyman-Scott and a defiant statement from Hynde that, after the guitarist’s death and the departure of Pete Farndon in 1982 (he left the band before his death), The Pretenders were by no means finished. The identity of the subject of Hynde’s love and devotion is never made clear, but pop doesn’t come much more perfect or evocative than this, with her achingly tender vocal and Honeyman-Scott’s tremendous soloing – a sublime hybrid of Duane Eddy and Roy Orbison – elevating the song to classic status.Ģ) “Back on the Chain Gang” ( Learning to Crawl, 1984) Coming hard on the heels of their debut single, a lovely cover of the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing”, The Pretenders retained that record’s sixties vibe for follow-up hit “Kid”. ![]()
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