As if the bassline wasn't enough, the song also provides one of the album's best choruses, and though the whole track runs a little too long, its length is justified by its closing position on the album. Being the third track on the album, following the much punkier "Precious" and "The Phone Call," "Up The Neck" is somewhat of an introduction to the Pretenders' more nuanced and melodic side.Ĭlosing out the album is the incredible "Mystery Achievement," held down with what is by far the album's best bassline, which sounds like something The Police would have written if they were into more straightforward rock rhythms. The opening riff to "Up The Neck" sounds like something lifted right from the Clash's first album, but instead of following through on that with some straightforward power chord crunch, the song brilliantly takes a step back with some atmospheric new wave arpeggios, similar to the style that The Smiths and R.E.M. would popularize four years later. Whenever she delivers those snarling lyrics in the verses, you can almost hear her eyebrows arching through the speakers. Opening track "Precious" is one of the album's simplest songs musically, with little more than some standard power chord thrashing, which means the song is almost entirely driven by Chrissie Hynde's undeniably badass attitude and personality. As exciting as the song is musically, however, there's not really much in the way of vocals besides some hasty spoken word. Only two chords are being strummed, but they're played in a tricky 7/8 time signature, which makes this more than just a straightforward punk song. The main guitar riff for "The Phone Call" can be seen as the distillation of the entire Pretenders aesthetic and what made them such a unique band. The Pretenders' cover of The Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing" was their first single, and though the track is markedly breezier and less punk than the rest of the album, it is a somewhat refreshing change of pace, and you can't really go wrong with a Kinks song, particularly one from the '60s. The instrumental "Space Invader" is the only original song on Pretenders not to be written or co-written by frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, but rather by bassist Pete Farndon and lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, and while the riffs are catchy enough on their own, the song is desperately missing Hynde's vocals and signature attitude. It's the closest thing the album comes to a ballad, which is fine, but it has very little of the pop-rock brilliance that makes the rest of the album so memorable. The album's penultimate track "Lovers of Today" suffers largely from the same problems at "Private Life": it's far too long (nearly six minutes) and not nearly punchy or hooky enough to sustain the listener's attention. While "Private Life" gets the new wave reggae tone spot on, it's the album's weakest song, stretching to six and a half minutes without much of a hook to speak of. In honor of this incredible album, here are its 12 tracks ranked, from weakest to best.Īs with many other British punk/new wave bands from the late '70s such as The Police and The Clash, reggae was a huge influence on The Pretenders, so there was bound to be at least one straight-up reggae song on their debut album. 19, marks the 35th anniversary of the Pretenders' classic self-titled debut album, which bridged punk rock to new wave and set the course for many other guitar pop bands to come over the course of the '80s, including the Go-Gos, R.E.M., The Sugarcubes, and many more.
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