Possibly the only thing more challenging for a young band than a sophomore album is a sophomore album whose predecessor debut knocked the entire world back on its heels. The pressure to duplicate that success is huge. But do you stick to form and try to ride that same musical wave all the way to the shallows, or do you turn out of it in search of something new?<\/p>\n
Sometimes you hedge your bets and do a little of both, which means you haven\u2019t fully committed to either, which can leave the end result feeling unfocused, possibly even a bit forced in places. <\/p>\n
Welcome to Pretenders II<\/i>, in which the world-beating quartet of Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, guitar), James Honeyman Scott (lead guitar, keys, vocals), Pete Farndon (bass, vocals) and Martin Chambers (drums, vocals) attempts to fill the gigantic shoes of their classic 1980 debut Pretenders<\/i>. That instantly memorable album, a showcase for both Hynde\u2019s New Wave-meets-British Invasion songwriting and the musical fireworks generated by Scott\u2019s furiously inventive lead guitar and the hard-hitting Farndon-Chambers rhythm section, also highlighted their versatility as the group shifted gears repeatedly between punky aggression and gentler melodic rock.<\/p>\n
Ironically, on the band\u2019s second album it\u2019s the tunes where it seems like they\u2019re trying hardest to live up to their own smashing debut that feel like the weakest links; it\u2019s as if the furious live-wire energy that lit up Pretenders<\/i> cuts like \u201cPrecious\u201d and \u201cThe Phone Call\u201d had left them spent. Their initial attempts to recreate it with opening cuts \u201cThe Adultress\u201d and \u201cBad Boys Get Spanked\u201d achieve only modest results; the former features chunky, menacing chords and a charismatic lead vocal from Hynde, but feels awkward and a step slow until the closing jam, while the latter tries too hard and ends up feeling as out of sync and over the top as the off-kilter scream Hynde lets out at 1:33. <\/p>\n
After that bumpy start, they locate the magic again with the brilliant \u201cMessage Of Love,\u201d Chambers driving the bus hard as Scott and Farndon deliver exclamation points on top and Hynde turns out nuggets of hard-earned wisdom at the mic. By the time she paraphrases Oscar Wilde (\u201cWe are all of us in the gutter \/ But some of us are looking at the stars\u201d), you\u2019re either singing along or unconscious. \u201cTalk Of The Town\u201d is the other highlight here, featuring Scott\u2019s gorgeous jangly lead guitar and one of Hynde\u2019s finest lead vocal performances, every detail perfect from the way her vibrato extends the word \u201ctown\u201d in the chorus to the bottomless longing she invests in \u201cI want you\u201d at the close.<\/p>\n
In between, they throw in another Kinks cover (\u201cI Go To Sleep\u201d) that feels like a bald attempt to repeat the group\u2019s first-album success with \u201cStop Your Sobbing.\u201d It\u2019s pleasantly soft and dreamy, and did well in the charts, but the addition of horns and strings actually feels like a subtraction from the band\u2019s unique sound here. Highlights from the second half include a trio of smart, edgy rockers in \u201cPack It Up,\u201d \u201cDay After Day\u201d and the closing, early British Invasion-flavored \u201cLouie Louie.\u201d <\/p>\n
The remainder of the album is fair to middling but a definite step down from Pretenders<\/i>, where every track feels essential. \u201cBirds Of Paradise\u201d shimmers along without generating much heat, as does \u201cWaste Not Want Not,\u201d which at least benefits from interesting, intricate Scott \/ Farndon interplay. \u201cJealous Dogs\u201d ramps up the tempo while featuring creative lead guitar from Scott, but is saddled with a pedestrian lyric. \u201cThe English Roses\u201d is a chiming, classic-rock flavored number that\u2019s pleasant enough but ends up feeling rather aimless. <\/p>\n
Where Pretenders<\/i> felt like a band a hundred percent on the same page, all pulling\u2014and pulling hard\u2014in the same direction, on Pretenders II<\/i> they locate that common groove only intermittently. In reality, the band had been on the record-promote-tour treadmill for two-plus years by this point, their lives spinning steadily out of control. The results weren\u2019t pretty; first Farndon was dismissed after becoming too strung out to perform; then Scott died of a drug overdose two days later, at age 25. Farndon would meet the same sad end the following year.<\/p>\n
When you get down to it, the biggest strike Pretenders II<\/i> has against it is that it isn\u2019t Pretenders<\/i>, which is of course patently unfair. As evidenced here, the group\u2019s founding lineup contained so much raw talent that even when the songs don\u2019t quite click, they still brim with charisma and melodic flair. The higher the bar has been set, the harder it is to clear it, and while the Pretenders surely set themselves an impossible task following up their debut, Pretenders II<\/i> has its moments and leaves you wondering what might have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7670],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46224","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-pretenders","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46224","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=46224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46224"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46224"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}