Album By Album – The Pretenders

Pretenders (1980)

It is no surprise that the hit-packed, self-titled debut from The Pretenders was wrapped in an almost universal blanket of praise upon its release at the beginning of 1980, hailing them as rock’s brightest hope for the forthcoming decade.

A monolithic masterclass in tight musicianship, clever lyrics and distinctive vocals, it was thrust upon a scene which had had its standards lowered immeasurably by the vital but not exactly technically proficient punk scene.

Fronted by the formidable floppy-fringed, kohl-eyed colossus that is Chrissie Hynde, the four-piece traded in grit not glamour, with the sharp edges of its rock-obsessed leader smoothed by the more melody-driven guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, drummer Martin Chambers and bassist Pete Farndon. While the only pop Chrissie had previously expressed an interest in was Iggy, her new bandmates opened her eyes to the musical merits of ABBA and The Beach Boys to forge their own amalgamation of catchy hooks and melodies fuelled by raw power.

A regular on the UK music scene since she touched down in Britain in 1973, the Ohio-born Anglophile Hynde had circled the peripheries of punk. She wrote for NME and worked at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX shop, and was close to The Clash, Sex Pistols and Motörhead before starting her own band.

She recruited the Hereford-born trio of Martin, James and Pete and signed with Dave Hill’s label, Real Records in 1978.

With only a handful of shows under their collective studded belts, the group had no following to speak of and rather than rush the album, they instead spent close to two years massaging Chrissie’s demos into Pretenders songs with producer Chris Thomas.

Original producer Nick Lowe saw no future for the band after recording a cover of The Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing and exited sessions, making way for Thomas to take over.

Reckless and relentless, the punchy aggression of Side One illustrates Hynde’s hard-knock life back in Akron, Ohio, detailing unsavoury encounters with deadbeats and biker gangs (particularly the brutal Tattooed Love Boys), while Side Two reveals a softer, more diverse face, kicking off with the melodic melancholia of Kid (about a boy who finds out his mother is a sex worker), a dip into dub reggae on Private Life (covered by Grace Jones the same year), and the sassy strut of breakthrough hit single Brass In Pocket, which marched to the top of the charts with the album hot on its heels.

Pretenders II (1981)

Although not as revered as its predecessor,  the band’s second album bears a lot of the hallmarks of what made the debut so great, though time constraints due to the quartet’s hectic touring schedule and label pressure to strike while the  iron was hot is obvious (and strongly alluded to in the lyrics of Day After Day and Pack It Up respectively), leading to slightly diminished returns.

Taken on its own merits, Pretenders II is a very good album littered with a few great songs. The trademark riffs and licks, unusual structures and unexpected phrasing are present throughout and it is on the whole a more polished set.

Its major flaw, though, is that you can occasionally recognise something they’d already done better on the previous record. Bad Boys Get Spanked for example, is an inferior rocker in the vein of Tattooed Love Boys (despite its added whip cracks) while the reggae-tinged flex of Waste Not Want Not pales in comparison to Private Life.

Two of the strongest tracks had already been released as singles earlier in 1981 (included as part of the Extended Play EP in the United States) so the fact that nothing else scaled those heights proved disappointing. However, with Talk Of The Town – one of their poppier moments and punchy rocker Message Of Love – they showcased the two different sides of the band perfectly and added to their tally of Top 20 hits.

Elsewhere, the smoky lullaby I Go To Sleep (another song from the pen of Ray Davies) is a superb pastiche of 60s melodrama, Birds Of Paradise and Day After Day showcase Chrissie’s pop chops and the caustic Pack It Up takes aim at record companies as she sneers and snarls, berating the men in suits for their inadequacies. Chugging opener The Adultress captures Chrissie at her sultry best (she later joked that it became a prophetic manifestation of her relationship with Ray Davies) and closer Louie Louie incorporates Stax soul and ska to serve as a rousing finale of a versatile collection once again produced by Chris Thomas.

The album reached No.7 in the UK and No.10 in the US upon release in August 1981.

Unfortunately, Pretenders II serves as a swansong to the dynamic original four-piece line-up. Having ignored repeated warnings that his performances were suffering as a result of his escalating drug use, Pete Farndon was fired from the band on 14 June 1982. Two days later, they were hit by the shocking news that James Honeyman-Scott had died after suffering heart failure due to excessive cocaine use. Any hopes harboured by fans that Farndon would return to the fold were dashed the following April when he was found dead in the bath after overdosing on heroin.

Following the dual tragedies, Chrissie and Martin later explained that, although crushing, the deaths weren’t complete surprises given the extent of drug abuse within the group at the time.

Following a long period of examining their own behaviour, processing their guilt over whether they could have done anything to avoid the deaths, they gathered themselves and decided to continue the group, putting the wheels in motion to embark on a new era.

Learning To Crawl (1984)

Picking up the pieces following the losses of James and Pete, Chrissie and Martin were tasked with rebuilding their band, a process Hynde later revealed they found terribly difficult as they weren’t just replacing their bassist and guitarist, they were essentially replacing their best friends.

Guitarist Billy Bremner, bass players Tony Butler and Andrew Bodnar and pianist Paul Carrack filled the void on the early sessions of the album (which resulted in Back On The Chain Gang, My City Was Gone and Thin Line Between Love And Hate) before Robbie McIntosh on lead guitar and Malcolm Foster on bass were enlisted as official band members.

Despite being born out of tragedy, Learning To Crawl is a fantastic album, possibly their best to date, depending on whether you prefer your Pretenders punky or poppy.

A much more accessible body of work, it largely tones down the trademark sneering and sarcasm, with Hynde literally fighting to save her band and delivering some of her best songwriting and vocals. Apparently named to reflect the stage of physical development Chrissie’s daughter Natalie had reached at the time of release, it’s impossible to ignore how Learning To Crawl could also be applied to the band once again finding its feet.

Any doubts over the ability of the group to bounce back are eradicated in the first minute of rollicking opener Middle Of The Road, which is a more refined take on the swagger of earlier work – likewise on Time The Avenger.

Back On The Chain Gang, although penned prior to James’ death took on a poignant new meaning in its aftermath and was dedicated to him. Show Me is one of the album’s more melodic moments in the same lane as Talk Of The Town.

Watching The Clothes and Thumbelina – a rockabilly- inspired track about a woman on the run with her child – both possess a strong narrative as does the bluesy groove of My City Was Gone, a lament to Hynde’s hometown of Akron.

The band’s haunting take on The Persuaders’ Thin Line Between Love And Hate improves on the 1971 original. The back and forth of I Hurt You’s multi-tracked vocals create a tension and tangled dialogue, which plays out over a reggae-inspired bassline. The sense of loss is best executed on 2000 Miles which has gone on to become a perennial Christmas staple.

Once again Chris Thomas’ production excels, matching the maturity of the lyrics with a more refined sound but always retaining an earthy authenticity.

The album missed the UK Top 10 when it was released in January 1984, stalling at No.11. It fared even better in the US, reaching No.5 – their highest charting long-player.

Capitalising on that success – and still settling into their roles within the new line-up, the band spent much of the next year on the road playing to their largest crowds to that point before winding it up by performing at Live Aid in Philadelphia.

Having almost lost everything, their perseverance resulted in some of their strongest work to date – Learning To Crawl is a triumph of art over adversity.

Get Close (1986)

The mid-80s was a turbulent time for the group. First, Chrissie teamed up with UB40  for a cover of Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe, which topped the UK chart. Then the news broke that the line-up of the band had once again undergone significant changes, leaving fans wondering whether there would even be a fourth album.

Long-standing producer Chris Thomas, often dubbed ‘the fifth Pretender,’ was out and Steve Lillywhite was enlisted to take over his role. That union, however, didn’t work out, and he too was soon out of the picture, with just a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Room Full Of Mirrors the only lasting remnant of his work with the band.

Next, Chrissie fired drummer Martin Chambers because she felt his playing had deteriorated and he still wasn’t coping well emotionally with the deaths of his former bandmates. Appalled, bassist Malcolm Foster left the group in solidarity, leaving session musicians to shoulder the bulk of the recording.

The Pretenders had descended into a game of musical chairs – every time the music stopped, someone else was out.

Fresh from working with Jim Kerr, Chrissie’s then-husband, on Simple Minds’ mammoth-selling hit record Once Upon A Time, Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain were drafted in to produce, and the result was an unfocused and often overblown affair.

The singer’s marriage is addressed on I Remember You and When I Change My Life, while My Baby is a tribute to Yasmin, her newborn daughter. Don’t Get Me Wrong was an obvious choice of single as was the majestic Hymn To Her – a soaring power ballad penned by Chrissie’s high school friend Meg Keene.

Fielding accusations that she had “mellowed” just because she was singing about her family, Hynde still spoke up when irked and the spiky How Much Did You Get For Your Soul? takes aim at the literal ‘pop’ stars selling out to soft drink sponsorship.

Overall, a mixed bag: despite the title, Get Close moves further away from The Pretenders as we know them than ever before.

Packed! (1990)

Perhaps one of the more overlooked records in “The Pretenders” oeuvre – the quotation marks are intentional, since the album was dismissed upon release as essentially a Hynde solo effort, issued under the band’s name to fulfil contractual obligations.

In retrospect, it’s puzzling why fans were so affronted by this notion – after all, every disc put out under The Pretenders’ name consisted of songs written and performed by the singer with a supporting cast.

It is, however, very much a diluted version of The Pretenders – the songs are good but nothing stands up to their first three long-players.

With Mitchell Froom handling production, Packed! dispenses with the pomp and clutter that marred Get Close.

The Byrds-like pop-rocker Never Do That gets the album off to a solid start, evoking the blissful Back On The Chain Gang, before a faithful cover of Jimi Hendrix’s May This Be Love, the gentle jangle of When Will I See You (co-written with Johnny Marr), and pacey tracks like Downtown (Akron), Hold A Candle To This, and No Guarantee all hold up.

How Do I Miss You is also one of their better attempts at reggae.

Far from the disaster it’s often painted as, the low points are nowhere near as bad as those of its successful predecessor.

Last Of The Independents (1994)

By the mid-90s, a new generation of female-fronted groups was tearing up the charts and if it wasn’t blatantly obvious that their lairy godmother was a massive inspiration on their sneering stylings over riotous rock, their namedropping of Chrissie as a major inspiration in their interviews confirmed it.

Four years on from the underperforming Packed!, Chrissie’s implicit intention for album number six was “let’s write a hit song”. Teaming up with songwriting duo Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly (the men behind Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors, The Bangles’ Eternal Flame and Heart’s Alone to name just a few), they exceeded expectations, penning two hit songs: Night In My Veins and the timeless ballad I’ll Stand By You, both instant additions to any future Pretenders hits compilation, plus three other songs (including Love Colours and 977).

Produced by Stephen Street and Ian Stanley, plus a returning Chris Thomas for one track, the album was the best thing to bear The Pretenders’ name in at least a decade.

Opener Hollywood Perfume is Melrose Avenue via Madchester with its loops and 60s guitars, while Chrissie sings the blues on the beautiful piano ballad 977 with its haunting lyric about domestic abuse. Revolution is much better and not as preachy as the title suggests with its lush Fleetwood Mac-style harmonies on its chorus. The confident swagger of Money Talk is also a highpoint. A moving cover of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young closes the album and pre-empts Chrissie’s later LP of his work.

While it does occasionally lapse into some tired clichés and of-its-day trends, Last Of… could perhaps do without a couple of tracks (I’m A Mother being the weakest), but overall, the primary strength is that it sounds like The Pretenders once again.

Hynde has rarely sounded better; Martin Chambers returns on a handful of tracks, reaffirming his position as an integral part of their sound, while Adam Seymour earns his stripes as their best guitarist since James Honeyman-Scott. ‘Return to form’ is a much-overused term, but in this case it’s justified.

¡Viva El Amor! (1999)

Five years after their last album, The Pretenders returned with another strong set, which not only acknowledged their  legacy but built on it.

As well as the generation of artists they’d inspired, they now also found themselves sparring in the charts with that other prominent female-fronted outfit from the late 70s following the reformation of Blondie.

Last Of The Independents had restored the band’s relevancy, and 1999’s ¡Viva El Amor! (Spanish for ‘Long Live Love!’) saw Hynde continue with the returning Chambers, guitarist Seymour and bassist Andy Hobson – a decision that offered a welcome sense of consistency.

The success of …Independents obviously boosted Hynde’s confidence and she chose to once again take on the bulk of the album’s songwriting solo, though her collaborations with Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg for the lush Beatles-coded ballad From The Heart Down, the Stones-inspired stomp Nails In The Road and acerbic Baby’s Breath (“Why did you send me roses?/ Save them for someone’s death” she sings), provide stellar standout moments.

Who’s Who is one of their poppiest tracks (it could almost be Texas), while One More Time is a Southern bluesy ballad with an incredible vocal. Legalise Me is a throwback to their punky roots. Meanwhile, closer Biker is a tender ballad about rebellion and non-conformism symbolised by the two-wheel traveller.

¡Viva El Amor! is another strong album – the abstract Samurai and clichéd Dragway 42 are the only misfires – but it’s the two singles that provide the highlights.

Popstar is a biting satire of celebrity culture, which lambasts manufactured divas and their ‘sex sells’ strategy. “They don’t make them like they used to”, Chrissie sneers.

Even better was their cover of Divinyls’ Human. From The Kinks to Dylan, Hynde was never precious about covering other acts’ songs if she felt she could bring something of herself to them and here she truly makes the track her own. Her vulnerability could not be more believable if it had come from her own pen. An assured set to commemorate their second decade in music.

Loose Screw (2002)

The Pretenders hit a milestone on 2002’s Loose Screw – it’s the first album to keep the same line-up (Hynde, Hobson, Chambers and Seymour) for three consecutive records. Sadly, it is their weakest collection by far.

Neither of the upbeat rockers Lie To Me and Fools Must Die go anywhere and the chorus to the former is monotonous rather than catchy. They’ve always flirted with reggae and that influence becomes prevalent here. It’s clear they were aiming for some kind of Lovers Rock vibe but unfortunately the tunes aren’t there and Time, Complex Person, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart and Clean Up Woman all fall short.

Seeing Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg’s names on the credits instils hope that Saving Grace turns out to be just that – particularly as past collaborations with them yielded such great results. Sadly, it’s not the case. A redundant cover of All Seeing I’s Walk Like A Panther rounds off the album.

Bearing none of the hallmarks of what makes a good Pretenders record, Loose Screw is a baffling, forgettable release.

If there’s a positive to take, it’s that they were willing to experiment two decades into their career when they could have easily played it safe – unfortunately, the risk didn’t pay off.

Break Up The Concrete (2008)

While the ill-advised dubby detour of Loose Screw resulted in a lacklustre affair, 2008’s rootsy rebirth brings a country-tinged ode to Americana which is a much better fit. Hynde’s decision to leave London to spend some time back in her native Ohio turned out to be one of the best things she ever did in terms of reigniting her creativity, turning in some of her strongest songwriting in years.

With every new release by this point greeted with the tired debate over whether it is a Pretenders album or a Chrissie one, people needed to just accept that she is The Pretenders and always has been – her words, her voice. “I know we’ve looked like a Pretenders tribute band for 20 years,” she joked at their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame the previous year.

Break Up The Concrete finds her in fine form augmented by James Walbourne on guitar, Nick Wilkinson on bass, Eric Heywood on pedal steel and drummer Jim Keltner, the latter being a stylistic swap for this album only as Chrissie felt that Martin Chambers’ drumming didn’t suit the sound she wanted for the record.

With the gritty cover and raucous opener, the Bo Diddley-inspired Boots Of Chinese Plastic, you’re lulled into a false sense of frenetic energy as it quickly dissipates with the soft, shuffling The Nothing Maker and Southern blues-backed Don’t Lose Faith In Me.

Don’t Cut Your Hair takes the band’s early fervour and feeds it through a rockabilly filter before a suite of mid-tempo cuts – Love’s A Mystery and The Last Ride – are sung from a place of weary lived experience.

You Didn’t Have To takesits cues from Neil Young’s Harvest Moon era, while the title track and Rosalee possess a loose, throwdown feel.

One Thing Never Changed brings the whole album to a wistful, mournful close.

Recorded in just 10 days, Break Up The Concrete is the sound of rejuvenation rather than rush job with everyone involved bringing their A-game with muscular performances.

Lyrically, the sarcasm has been toned down for the most part and replaced by introspection and a whole lot of heart.

Alone (2016)

Originally envisioned as a second Chrissie solo album to follow 2014’s Stockholm, Alone (an obviously titillating title to provoke the line-up police!) was recorded with The Black Keys’ mainman Dan Auerbach, a fellow native of Akron of whom she was a big fan.

As with the rootsy Break Up The Concrete, Alone was completed in just a couple of weeks with Chrissie heading to Nashville to record with a band assembled by Auerbach which included Johnny Cash’s former bass player Dave Roe and guitarist Kenny Vaughan, alongside members of The Arcs – aka Dan’s side project.

Struck down with a respiratory infection, Hynde recorded all of her vocals on the two final days, submitting a couple of takes for each song. Despite its circumstances, Alone is a solid effort with standouts including Never Be Together, Let’s Get Lost (which was re-recorded as a duet with Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant for its release as a single) and Primal Scream co-write Holy Commotion.

Upon delivering it to the label, bosses commented that it sounded more like a Pretenders album than a Chrissie one.

She later said that she thought it should have been released as Dan Auerbach/Chrissie Hynde collaboration but in typically cool fashion instructed them to release it as “whichever is going to sell most copies!”

Hate For Sale (2020)

The 11th Pretenders album is a back-to-basics affair on which they collate their strengths and Chrissie welcomes back some old friends. The first record since 2002’s disappointing Loose Screw to feature Chambers, Walbourne (who also co-wrote the entire LP with Chrissie) and Wilkinson, it was also the only album release to feature the line-up on the front cover since Learning To Crawl in 1984.

With Stephen Street back onboard, having last worked with the band on their pair of 90s hit releases Last Of The Independents and ¡Viva El Amor!, the producer displays a genuine understanding of the group, framing them as a no-frills four-piece which works hugely in their favour.

Each song sounds fully fleshed out but never fussy, allowing the tight songwriting to take centre stage. Highlights are abundant, from the classic-sounding The Buzz (which sits comfortably beside classics such as Kid) and the glam stomp of Turf Accountant Daddy, to the Southern soul of You Can’t Hurt A Fool and confident rocker Maybe Love Is In NYC.

Didn’t Want To Be This Lonely sits firmly on the right side of power pop, while the scuzzy swagger of Junkie Walk and the title track take their cues from The Stooges.

The effortless switch-up to sombre ballad Crying In Public closes the album, which clocks in at just 30 minutes.

Originally scheduled for a spring 2020 launch, the world being plunged into a Covid-induced lockdown forced a rethink of the release strategy.

A huge tour across America with Journey was cancelled, and the album was delayed by a few months. However, confident in the material and eager for fans to hear it, the band drip-fed five singles in the lead-up to its July arrival.

Hate For Sale once again attracted that ‘return to form’ tag across the board, with many agreeing it was their best work since the mid-90s, and some even going so far as to say it usurped those records and was the strongest since 1984’s Learning To Crawl.

Reaching a disappointing No.29 in the UK, Hate For Sale definitely deserved much better.Of all the albums in their catalogue that would have benefited from a tour, it was surely this one.

Relentless (2023)

The most recent Pretenders album saw Chrissie and Walbourne continue the partnership which proved so fruitful on Hate For Sale. Once again, the pair wrote the entire LP together, remotely building on the foundation of the previous record with the intention of broadening the sonics. The result once more exceeded expectations and positioned The Pretenders as a band with far more to say musically than its legacy.

Kris Sonne takes his place behind the drumkit, Chris Hill and Dave Page share bass duties while Carwyn Ellis supplies keyboards and guitar.

David Wrench, whose credits include David Byrne, Blur, Goldfrapp and Erasure, was enlisted to produce the album.

Maybe not as immediate as Hate For Sale, Relentless instead chooses to reveal itself over time, embedding melodies and guitar licks into your subconscious and demanding repeated listens.

Losing My Sense Of Taste sets the tone, with Let The Sun Come In and Vainglorious the only real up-tempo tracks on display. Elsewhere, moody soundscapes dominate, with Promise Of Love, Look Away, Your House Is On Fire and Merry Widow forming a surprisingly sedate album, given the misleading Relentless title.

A terrific collaboration with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on Think About You Daily delivers a majestic closing track.

Unanimously adored by critics, this robust, beautiful album shows that there is no limit on creativity.

Hynde is still finding new ways to express herself almost 50 years after she signed her first record deal. While we all thought we knew what to expect from a Pretenders record, the last few have taught us otherwise.

On Hynde’s recently-released duets album, on which she collaborates with k.d. lang, Debbie Harry, Dave Gahan and Brandon Flowers among others, she grabs the ‘Chrissie and pals’ label that has been used to criticise her for decades and takes ownership of it.

A middle finger to her critics, it’s yet another example of the great Pretender being one of music’s most authentic figures.

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