![]() ![]() ![]() But on ''Learning to Crawl'' Miss Hynde has relaxed her posturing without dropping her guard. The songs on ''Pretenders II'' took a wrong turn they went to extremes, either exaggeratedly tough or muddle-headed and sentimental. And her lyrics spared neither herself nor her former lovers and antagonists. Writing about romances in which affection and power had been badly unbalanced, Miss Hynde took a point of view that's rare in rock - that of someone who had learned from experience. As a singer, Miss Hynde chose not to outshout the guitars, but to let her calm, sultry alto voice float above them or spit out phrases between the chords.Įven more original was the attitude her songs projected. ![]() Her tunes were ornery and asymmetrical, and with Miss Hynde on rhythm guitar and James Honeyman-Scott on lead guitar, the Pretenders could summon both the power of hard-rock and the tunefulness of folk-rock. The Pretenders' debut album in 1980 introduced Miss Hynde as a straight-talking songwriter who immediately put her own stamp on the traditionally male, traditionally simplistic style of hard-rock. It is already a vital, assured band - one that works a little differently from the old Pretenders but continues to bolster one of rock's finest songwriters as she gets better and better. Miss Hynde, who has always been the band's songwriter, and the drummer Martin Chambers recorded three of the 10 songs on ''Learning to Crawl'' with British session musicians, then formed a new Pretenders band with Rob McIntosh on guitar and Malcolm Foster on bass. And it is half the story - the happier half, and the more important one - behind the third Pretenders album, ''Learning to Crawl.''ĭeath, as well as birth, informs ''Learning to Crawl.'' After ''Pretenders II'' was released in 1981, two of the four original Pretenders died as a result of drug use. That quick pronouncement is nearly autobiographical, since Miss Hynde, now 32, gave birth to a daughter last January. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |