Pretenders

Recently, Chrissie Hynde has dismissed queries about working on her own, claiming she
likes being part of a band. For all the shake-ups down Pretenders way – more than ten
years of them – her music has followed a sure trajectory. The Pretenders sound like they
do, supremely melodic and rife with sudden nerve-racking downshifts, album in and album
out. Whatever the motif, the songs are carried along, Johnny Marr's guitar notwi... More >

You can catch more pop with misery than you can with connubial bliss, and whether she's feeling her losses or picking up the get-down, Chrissie Hynde is on her game again. Unlikely highlights include a medium-tempo take-me-back plea, a sendup of class war, an obscurely nasty animal-rights song, and yet another medium-tempo take-me-back plea. That's right, she's groveling--yet she sounds like her own woman doing it. Must have something to do with the melody lines. (Grade - A-)