The Pretenders Remaster and Expand Their Brilliant Debut
El Bicho
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Sounding better than ever, The Pretenders' first album, simply titled Pretenders, has been remastered and re-released. Augmented with a second disk of B-sides, demos, and live tracks, it is still all killer, no filler. This American-fronted, British band's first recording ranks as one of th 
eir best and puts them side by side with other classic rock debuts as The Doors and Led Zeppelin.
Everyone knows at least one Pretenders' tune; check out the singles collection to see what I mean. A few popular songs off of this album are self-penned dandies, "Kid" and "Brass In Pocket," alongside Ray Davies' "Stop Your Sobbing." Then we have cult favorites that include the likes of "Precious" and "Tattooed Love Boys," two in-your-face rockers with hard, raw attitude.
The album is divided into a rocking punkish part and a dreamy part , where guitar/vocalist Chrissie Hynde's displays her softer side. The songs in this mode are the more popular or at least the more well known of the band, which is really too bad because the original line-up of Pete Farndon bass, James Honeyman-Scott guitars/keyboards, and Martin Chambers drums can rock with the best of them. Oh, don't get me wrong; the singles do jump but the others tracks are fierce and have more drive to them. By the time of these recordings, guitarist Honeyman-Scott was heavily under the influence of rockabilly guitar hero Dave Edmunds, which adds to their sound.
Released in late 1979, Pretenders opens with "Precious," and we hear how hard the band hits. The drums crash and the bass has a solid, driving pulse while the guitars swirl and soar around them. Hynde's lyrics are delivered with force by her seething vocal attack, "Trapped in a world/ That they never made/ But not me baby/ I'm too precious/ I had to fuck off". "The Phone Call" and "Tattooed Love Boys" keep the pace and the latter finds our heroine hangin' with the shop boys and learning that when you shoot your mouth off with this crowd, they'll show you "What that hole was for."
Everyone knows at least one Pretenders' tune; check out the singles collection to see what I mean. A few popular songs off of this album are self-penned dandies, "Kid" and "Brass In Pocket," alongside Ray Davies' "Stop Your Sobbing." Then we have cult favorites that include the likes of "Precious" and "Tattooed Love Boys," two in-your-face rockers with hard, raw attitude.
The album is divided into a rocking punkish part and a dreamy part , where guitar/vocalist Chrissie Hynde's displays her softer side. The songs in this mode are the more popular or at least the more well known of the band, which is really too bad because the original line-up of Pete Farndon bass, James Honeyman-Scott guitars/keyboards, and Martin Chambers drums can rock with the best of them. Oh, don't get me wrong; the singles do jump but the others tracks are fierce and have more drive to them. By the time of these recordings, guitarist Honeyman-Scott was heavily under the influence of rockabilly guitar hero Dave Edmunds, which adds to their sound.
Released in late 1979, Pretenders opens with "Precious," and we hear how hard the band hits. The drums crash and the bass has a solid, driving pulse while the guitars swirl and soar around them. Hynde's lyrics are delivered with force by her seething vocal attack, "Trapped in a world/ That they never made/ But not me baby/ I'm too precious/ I had to fuck off". "The Phone Call" and "Tattooed Love Boys" keep the pace and the latter finds our heroine hangin' with the shop boys and learning that when you shoot your mouth off with this crowd, they'll show you "What that hole was for."