ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 193 PRETENDERS - PRETENDERS (1980)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Pretenders

Genre: Rock/New Wave

Country Of Origin: Britain/United States

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: Yes (2005)

Album: Pretenders

Producer: Chris Thomas/Nick Lowe

RJ's Top 5 Tunes: 1. Kid...2. Private Life...3. Precious...4. Stop Your Sobbing...5.The Wait

Disclaimer:  All "facts" come from wikipedia.com unless otherwise noted.

Disclaimer #2:  I'm on an 80's kick for the next 10 weeks.  I'm covering an 80's album from each year of the 80's decade, though not in chronological order.  Some of these may be well known to me, some may not be.  But they were all pretty big sellers that left a mark. Out of these ten, I actually had to purchase two of them to feature them here.  I think Scott and Jon are along for the 80's ride as well, maybe.

Disclaimer #3: I'm posting 1980 instead of 1985 because my first 80's post was 1985.  I'll be back in sync for 1986-1989.

I have The Pretenders for you this week.  It's their debut, self-titled album from 1980 (Wikipedia says 1980 but also lists the release date from 1979.  I'm not sure, so I'm counting it as 1980).  I'll be honest here, I have never cared for The Pretenders.  The songs I've heard on the radio have just never worked for me.  But I like to try and branch out occasionally with this forum, so I picked this up specifically for this 80's run.  Before I give you my thoughts, here are a few nuggets regarding the album:

• The album debuted at number one in the U.K. and reached the number 9 slot in the U.S.
• Pretenders has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
• Brass In Pocket was the only Top 40 single from the album in the U.S. (it reached number 1 in the U.K.).
• Stop Your Sobbing and Kid were the other two singles.
• The album was remastered and re-issued in 2006, along with a bonus disc of demos, B-sides and live tracks (this is the release I bought).
• Stop Your Sobbing was the only track produced by Nick Lowe.

So what do I think?  I still don't really get it.  And I think it's the vocalist.  I'm not crazy about so much "non-singing".  There's a good bit of spoken lyrics, or what sounds more like speaking than singing.  It's not like I hate it.  The bass work is really the standout part for me.  Overall, musically, it's good.  I get a Cheap Trick vibe with some of the instrumentation.  And I think the second half of the album is better than the first half.

So there you have it.  I tried it.  I'm not buying (well, I bought this one, but I'm not buying any more).

Side One:

1. Precious

2. The Phone Call

3. Up The Neck

4. Tattooed Love Boys

5. Space Invader

6. The Wait

7. Stop Your Sobbing

Side Two:

8. Kid 

9. Private Life

10. Brass In Pocket 

11. Lovers Of Today

12. Mystery Achievement

 

[Jon]

No, no, no. You need to buy Learning To Crawl.

[Mike Mills]

I Love the 80's! Can I say that, or is it copywrited by VH1 or something? I remember coming up, nobody really liked The Pretenders & it wasn'rt cool to like The pretenders. The joke was, "Yeah, The Pretenders....they call themselves that, because they pretending to be a band". My take? Well, I always thought Chrissy Hynde was Hot! The brunette bangs in the eyes...yeah. To me, the music was ok back then. Nothing blew me away, but I could listen to it, especially if it was a video that featured Chrissy Hynde.

  I kinda' forgot about the Pretenders until the realeased the song "I'll Stand By You". A Pretenders song, I really liked! Chrissy Hynde was as Hot as ever performing it on tv. So, I revisited some of the old Pretenders material & gained a new found appreciation for it. So, I'm not a Hater....Chrissy could sing the phone book to me or recite it, whatever the case may be.

[Niels (Mod)]

I only ever bought one Pretenders-album, in 1986, can't remember the title. I didn't like it, but some of their songs are okay. I'v always had kind of a soft spot for Chrissie Hynde, thought. She's not a babe, but there's something about Chrissie.

[Jon]

This album is like Axe's "Nemesis". Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. 

I listened to this a few weeks ago and liked it then, listened to it again today and still like it. Funny how many Kiniks songs were covered in the late 70's, early 80's (well, three that I can think of with one of them here). Even funnier is that Chrissie and Ray spawned a child. Funny, to me.

I dunno, maybe this has grown on me over the years. Maybe next year I won't like it. I still think "Learning To Crawl" is their opus, but (for now) this has been a good listen.  

[Scott]

I loved Brass In Pocket as a single and hated this when it came out.  I thought they were way to punk for me, I was a Rocker!!  But time fixes a lot of things included how good this album truly is.

I looked at my ratings in my iTunes.  Tattooed Love Boys is the worst rated track at 3 stars - probably because of the title more than anything, oh and its a bit quirky...

I like the follow up as much as well, and agree with Jon about Learning to Crawl - that one is a must own!  Then came Get Close and I like it too...  I loved this weeks pick!