Caught in the Carousel

The Pretenders

Break Up The Concrete
Shangri-La Music

The Pretenders

Short is the list of artists whose brilliant debut album was superseded by their follow up. The sophomore slump/jinx is a cliché for a reason. But Roxy Music's eponymous debut was followed by the astonishing For Your Pleasure, Sade's arresting Diamond Life was followed up by the sumptuously superior Promise, and The Blue Nile may have thrilled listeners with their A Walk Across the Rooftops, but they broke the hearts of those same listeners with their masterpiece, Hats. But I can think of no better 1-2 punch in the history of pop music than The Pretenders I and The Pretenders II. And then Chrissie Hynde had the audacity to follow it up with the generous and moving Learning to Crawl. By the third album it was clear that Hynde could make all those female singers who came before her close to irrelevant. She out-phrased Joni Mitchell, she out-angered Janis Joplin; she could even freak you out better than Grace Slick. To this day, Hynde needs only to bow to Edith Piaf, because there exists no other more commanding singer in our musical histories.

But late in the 1980s the Pretenders' music got fat and undisciplined. The rants had a straight-to-DVD feel to them. Effectively the melodies were only there to allow for Hynde's wonderful vocal experiments. Strangely enough, their last studio album, Loose Screw (2003) showcased a band and a singer looser and freer and more rhythmic than they'd been in years. I got the feeling, however, that I was in the minority on that opinion. And I feel I might be in the minority again with their new release Break Up The Concrete. It has arrived with all the excitement that November 2008 will be remembered for, but it all seems a pale imitation of their early work. "Boots of Chinese Plastic" riffs and rolls and sneers, but it can't lick the leather of "Tattooed Love Boys" from over 25 years ago. "Break Up the Concrete" doesn't threaten you with the destruction of "My City Was Gone" from 1983. The whole album is that of a very accomplished tribute band. But this is not the album I want as proof of the band's evolution.

Is it fair to compare an artists' early career with their later work? I think so. Yes, there have been many personnel changes in the band, but the Pretenders have always been Chrissie's band. And she has shown her continued relevance when she tries new things (all anyone has to do is find her gorgeous John Barry collaboration "If There Was a Man" from the Bond soundtrack The Living Daylights to wonder why Hynde hasn't tried a ballads album or a standards album; her exuding sexuality is a timeless thing). But as far as this new album, it comes down to this: would you eat at Denny's if Chez Panisse was across the street and someone else was picking up the tab? Would you dust the freezer-burn off a Klondike Bar if you had a fresh hand-packed pint of Ben & Jerry's in the same freezer? Would you be on a beachfront hotel in Bora Bora and choose the room with the view of the kitchen or the one with the view of the turquoise coastline?

Thought so.

—Thomas Cooney