The Pretenders - Get Close (1986) - Lp

Release: 1986
Genre:  Pop, Rock
Format:  LP
Label:  WEA Records
Catalog#  240976-1
Prijs:  €10,00

Get Close is the fourth album by rock group The Pretenders, released in 1986. The album contains the band's two biggest Mainstream Rock Tracks chart hits, "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "My Baby", both of which reached #1.
Get Close was recorded during a particularly transitional period of the band's career, featuring a variety of sessions and multiple personnel. The first of its recording sessions, produced by Steve Lillywhite, featured the Learning to Crawl lineup put together by Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers (following the deaths of fellow founding Pretenders James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon) which featured guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bass guitarist Malcolm Foster (plus the band's touring keyboard player Rupert Black). This resulted in a cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Room Full of Mirrors". Shortly after the session Hynde decided that Chambers' playing had deteriorated. "Martin was playing crap. Martin just fucking lost it. And to think about it, why shouldn’t he have lost it? He’d just lost his two best friends. I was insane. I was traumatised. But you don’t know it at the time. I was trying to keep my shit together. To be honest Martin was playing crap and I knew musically I was losing my inspiration. But I’d tried too hard and come too far to let it all go, so Martin went instead."^[7]
Having fired Chambers from the band, Hynde was left as the only remaining original member. With Foster's departure shortly afterwards, this left the band without a rhythm section. With Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain taking over production duties, about half of the album was recorded by Hynde and McIntosh with high-profile session players. Bass guitar was provided by Bruce Thomas (of The Attractions), Chucho Merchán and John McKenzie, and drums by Simon Phillips, Steve Jordan and Mel Gaynor of Simple Minds, with assorted keyboards and synthesizers provided by Tommy Mandel, Patrick Seymour, Funkadelic's Bernie Worrell, Bruce Brody (ex-Patti Smith Band) and Paul Wickens. Carlos Alomar made further contributions on percussion and synthesizer programming.
The later album sessions featured contributions from two further musicians - former James Brown bass guitarist T.M. Stevens and ex-Haircut One Hundred drummer Blair Cunningham. Towards the end of the sessions, Stevens and Cunningham were recruited into the band full-time. On release, Get Close was credited to a formal Pretenders lineup of Hynde, McIntosh, Stevens and Cunningham, despite the latter two members only having played on half of the album. All four musicians appeared on the album cover art, as had been the case with previous Pretenders albums. Unlike previous albums, however, this time Hynde was the only member pictured on the front cover, emphasizing her dominance of the band (as would be the case with all subsequent Pretenders album art).
In comparison to the New Wave stylings of the first three Pretenders albums, Get Close had a strong funk element (partially due to the substantial session contributions from American funk, soul and rhythm and blues players).
The album also featured Pretenders' first power ballad: "Hymn to Her", a paean to femaleness written by Hynde's former schoolfriend Meg Keene. The band also recorded a Carlos Alomar song, "Light of the Moon".


Side one
1. My Baby (4:07)
2. When I Change My Life (3:38)
3. Light of the Moon (3:57)
4. Dance! (6:46)
5. Tradition of Love (5:27)

Side two
1. Don’t Get Me Wrong (3:46)
2. I Remember You (2:38)
3. How Much Did You Get for Your Soul? (3:48)
4. Chill Factor (3:27)
5. Hymn to Her (4:58)
6. Room Full of Mirrors (4:44)

Vinyl: goed
Cover: goed

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The Pretenders - II (1981)

Side A
A1.  The Adultress  (3:58)
A2.  Bad Boys Get Spanked  (4:07)
A3.  Message Of Love  (3:28)
A4. I Go To Sleep  (2:57)
A5.  Birds Of Paradise  (4:16)
A6.  Talk Of The Town  (2:45)

Side B
B1.  Pack It Up  (3:52)
B2.  Waste Not Want Not  (3:46)
B3.  Day After Day  (3:47)
B4.  Jealous Dogs  (5:38)
B5.  The English Roses  (4:31)
B6.  Louie Louie  (3:29)

Release:  1981
Label:  Real Records
Catalog#  SRK 3572

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Pretenders - Learning To Crawl (1984)

Artist:  Pretenders
Title:  Learning To Crawl
Release:  1984
Format:  LP
Label:  WEA Records
Catalog#  923980-1

“Learning to Crawl” is the Pretenders' third album, released in 1984 after a two-year hiatus, during which time James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon both died of drug overdoses.
Chrissie Hynde took a long, hard road to rock & roll stardom, but when her band, the Pretenders, finally broke through in 1979, they wasted no time, growing from promising newcomers on the British music scene to major international stardom with a pair of smash albums to their credit in a mere three years. But the Pretenders' meteoric rise came to a crashing halt in 1982, when drug abuse claimed the life of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and forced Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers to dump bassist Pete Farndon, who would also succumb to an OD in April 1983. Hynde was forced by circumstance to reinvent the Pretenders for their third album, 1984's “Learning to Crawl”, but if the new edition of the group lacked some of the spark of the band that made the first two LPs, through sheer force of will Hynde created a masterpiece. While Hynde hardly held back in her emotionally potent songwriting in the Pretenders' early work, on “Learning to Crawl” there's a gravity to her lyrics that blended with her tough but wiry melodic sense and streetwise intelligence to create a set of truly remarkable tunes. "Back on the Chain Gang" is a touching tribute to her fallen comrades that still sounds bitterly rueful, "Middle of the Road" is a furious rocker that explores the emotional and physical toll of a musician's life, "Time the Avenger" is a taut, literate examination of a businessman's adulterous relationship, "My City Was Gone" deals with the economic and cultural decay of the Midwest in a manner both pithy and genuinely heartfelt, and "2000 Miles" is a Christmas number that demonstrates Hynde can be warm without getting sappy. As a guitarist, Robbie McIntosh brought a simpler and more elemental style to the Pretenders than James Honeyman-Scott, but his tough, muscular leads fit these songs well, and bassist Malcolm Foster's solid punch fits Chambers' drumming perfectly. Three albums into her recording career, Chrissie Hynde found herself having to put the past to bed and carve out a new beginning for herself with “Learning to Crawl”, but she pulled it off with a striking mixture of courage, strength, and great rock & roll; with the exception of the instant-classic debut album, it's the Pretenders' finest work.


Side one
1.  Middle Of The Road   (4:08)  
2.  Back On The Chain Gang   (3:44)  
3.  Time The Avenger   (4:47)  
4.  Watching The Clothes   (2:48)  
5.  Show Me   (4:00) 

Side two
1.  Thumbelina   (3:12)  
2.  My City Was Gone   (5:14)  
3.  Thin Line Between Love And Hate   (3:33)  
4.  I Hurt You   (4:27)  
5.  2000 Miles   (3:30)

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Pretenders - Pretenders (1980)

Artist:  Pretenders
Title:  Pretenders
Release:  1980
Format:  LP
Label:  Warner Bros.
Catalog#  WBN 56774

“Pretenders” is the debut studio album by the British-American new wave band The Pretenders, released on 27 December 1979. A combination of rock, punk, and pop music, this album made the band famous.  Nick Lowe produced the Pretenders' first single, "Stop Your Sobbing", but decided not to work with them again as he thought the band "wasn't going anywhere". Chris Thomas took over on the subsequent recording sessions.
Few rock & roll records rock as hard or with as much originality as the Pretenders' eponymous debut album. A sleek, stylish fusion of Stonesy rock & roll, new wave pop, and pure punk aggression, Pretenders is teeming with sharp hooks and a viciously cool attitude. Although Chrissie Hynde establishes herself as a forceful and distinctively feminine songwriter, the record isn't a singer/songwriter's tour de force -- it's a rock & roll album, powered by a unique and aggressive band. Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott never plays conventional riffs or leads, and his phased, treated guitar gives new dimension to the pounding rhythms of "Precious," "Tattooed Love Boys," "Up the Neck," and "The Wait," as well as the more measured pop of "Kid," "Brass in Pocket," and "Mystery Achievement." He provides the perfect backing for Hynde and her tough, sexy swagger. Hynde doesn't fit into any conventional female rock stereotype, and neither do her songs, alternately displaying a steely exterior or a disarming emotional vulnerability. It's a deep, rewarding record, whose primary virtue is its sheer energy. Pretenders moves faster and harder than most rock records, delivering an endless series of melodies, hooks, and infectious rhythms in its 12 songs. Few albums, let alone debuts, are ever this astonishingly addictive.
The album features the singles "Stop Your Sobbing" "Kid" and "Brass in Pocket".


Side one
1.  Precious  (3:36)
2.  The Phone Call  (2:29)
3.  Up the Neck  (4:27)
4.  Tattooed Love Boys  (2:59)
5.  Space Invader  (3:26)
6.  The Wait  (3:35)
7.  Stop Your Sobbing  (2:38)

Side two
1.  Kid  (3:06)
2.  Private Life  (6:25)
3.  Brass in Pocket  (3:04)
4.  Lovers of Today  (5:51)
5.  Mystery Achievement  (5:23)

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