Relentless PHONOGRAM
8/10
CHRISSIE HYNDE’S voice has always curled with contempt and sorrow, curt dismissal and self-critique. An ache is inbuilt, adding patented, wry hurt to the brisk, chiming pop of the Pretenders’ ’70s and ’80s hit parade. The band have meanwhile maintained creative consistency, proudly declared in the setlists of this year’s club tour, which sifted gold of comparable lustre from their songbook.
That voice, like Hynde’s wiry, shaggy-haired silhouette, never really changes, though her writing hasn’t clung to youth. Turning 71 doesn’t mean, either, that joins the post- genre of rockers stoutly confronting the Grim Reaper. Instead, Hynde and guitarist/co-writer James Walbourne have slowed their music down to take forensically precise snapshots of regret and dismay, as if dissecting emotional car crashes. often exists in sun-baked climes, dry heat making the singer squint to see the worst, searing air burning off delusion in pitilessly clear sky. , Hynde sings on “Your House Is On Fire”. Even in “The Promise Of Love”, with snow laying thick, offers only a different colour of piercing clarity. Lyrics about a world in turmoil, from climate change to national decline, become symptomatic backdrops for personal entropy. At the same time, as the album title suggests, this potent work leaves the current Pretenders fiercely resurgent.
