Male singers swagger.<\/p>\n
Female singers might preen or wail or enchant or provoke, but throughout the brief history of rock and roll up to 1980 that essentially Stones-ian swagger, that sneering, occasionally brutal self-confidence had always been the province of men — until Chrissie Hynde claimed it for her own.<\/p>\n
The Pretenders\u2019 self-titled debut is a monumental rock and roll album, one that both changed the way the rock world viewed women and changed the way the few female rockers active at the time viewed themselves. The message of this album \u2013 full of aggressive, balls-out rockers and equally gentle, heartfelt ballads — was that a woman could in fact be both tough and tender, could spit and swagger and bully and still be a dewy-eyed romantic underneath.<\/p>\n
The album kicks off memorably with the visceral post-punk snarl of \u201cPrecious,\u201d a showcase for both guitarist James Honeyman-Scott\u2019s furiously inventive riffing and Hynde\u2019s kiss-me-now-before-I-kick-your-ass stage persona. By the time Hynde\u2019s rant reaches its natural climax — \u201cBut not me baby, I\u2019m too precious \/ Fuck off!\u201d \u2013 the average 1980 listener had been bludgeoned into happy submission.<\/p>\n
The two in this disc\u2019s one-two opening punch is \u201cThe Phone Call,\u201d another furiously churning rocker in which Honeyman-Scott\u2019s lead guitar is again both muscular and creative while Hynde simply assaults the microphone with confidence and attitude. On these first two the vocals seem to be purposely fast and slurry; it\u2019s hard to make out some of Hynde\u2019s words, but the boiling-over emotions behind them are indelible.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp The Neck\u201d and \u201cTattooed Love Boys\u201d hint at the smoother Pretenders sound Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers would steer the band into on later albums, after Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon\u2019s untimely deaths. They\u2019re both loose yet highly melodic pop-rock tunes with the occasional rough edges polished by sultry vocals and sublime hooks.<\/p>\n
On an album of this quality, even dated throwaways like the instrumental \u201cSpace Invader\u201d have a role to play, showing the group\u2019s range and sense of humor, while also setting up the intro to the frenzied, deliriously catchy \u201cThe Wait,\u201d another album highlight.<\/p>\n
The second half of the disc (side two for us old-timers) is generally softer than what came before, but no less remarkable. The band\u2019s luminous, role-reversing, spot-on cover of the Kinks\u2019 \u201cStop Your Sobbing\u201d led composer Ray Davies right into Hynde\u2019s arms, and why wouldn\u2019t it? \u201cBrass In Pocket\u201d is similarly brilliant ear candy. And the closing \u201cMystery Achievement\u201d gets the crowd back on its feet with a loose, rather Who-like arrangement spotlighting the rhythm section under some of Hynde\u2019s most ebullient vocals.<\/p>\n
The Pretenders<\/i> is without a doubt one of the great debut albums in rock history. The fact that it is also one of the most influential albums of all time by a female-fronted group is simply one more reason it deserves your attention. Chrissie Hynde swaggers; Chrissie Hynde rocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7670],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40462","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-pretenders","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40462"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40462"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}