PRETENDERS

Relentless (Phonogram)

“We were going to be like a motorcycle club but we had guitars,” said Pretenders band leader Chrissie Hynde recently, regarding her initial idea for the group, and what a rollercoaster ride it has been since they formed at the tail-end of the 1970s. In no time, the Pretenders were dominating radio, their palette of hard-as-nails rockers and tender ballads showing they had more in common with the Rolling Stones than with their new wave contemporaries.

The Pretenders’ eponymous debut still stands the test of time, as does much of what followed – Pretenders II to Hate For Sale via Learning To Crawl – and despite losing band members to addiction among other dilemmas, Hynde has never called it a day, with Relentless the 12th Pretenders album. It shares common ground with that 1980 debut, though by no means an attempt at replication, and sonically speaking is razor-sharp and laser-precise too. Whether the guitar-driven earworm A Love or the jawdropping beauty I Think About You Daily, every song on Relentless hits its mark. 

words DAVID NOBAKHT