Through the mid-to-late '70s, Chrissie Hynde was an American in London, witness to the music and fashion scenes that were exploding into angry colour around her while she champed at the bit to make a defining statement of her own. When her opportunity finally came, it flung her from the wings of rock's stage to its spot-lit centre.
In 1978, emboldened by the encouraging reception of demos of her own songs, Hynde enlisted British rockers James Honeyman-Scott (guitar), Pete Farndon (bass) and Martin Chambers (drums) to form the Pretenders. Within months, debut single Stop Your Sobbing, a Kinks cover, made the UK Top 30. Follow-up single Kid did almost as well and chart-topping third single Brass In Pocket catapulted the band to fame on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Pretenders' eponymous debut album, released in January 1980, drew together these radio-friendly hits and B-sides with seven fresh tracks that fleshed out the seamier side of the band's character. It too sailed to No 1 in the UK, peaking at ninth spot on the Billboard charts in the US.
Hynde's capacity for siphoning the juice from the genres that inspired her is one key to the album's appeal; the other is her band's ability to unify around these influences and carry off an assured performance.
The punk-fuelled attack in Precious and The Wait gives way to the Stones-ish swagger of Up The Neck and Mystery Achievement and the midnight reggae of Private Life, while on Tattooed Love Boys Honeyman-Scott's chiming lead guitar pulls a memorably simple melody from between the driving riffs and changing time signatures.
On these faster numbers, Hynde is surly and shockingly direct, a thick-skinned woman reflecting on some pretty raw life experiences. But with a flick of a switch her demeanour changes, both Stop Your Sobbing and Kid echoing the old-fashioned vulnerabilities of the Spector-era girl groups and revealing Hynde to be a sucker for a catchy hook.
