| Boomer Media Review |
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PRETENDERS
Learning To Crawl
Extra Tracks/Remaster
Sire/Real/Rhino
Hard to believe, really, that some
of the music on this new,
remastered, expanded
Pretenders gem is near 25 years
old.
Chrissie Hynde and the boys
were fairly hard-core new-age
punk when they began in the
late 70s, and although the
sound evolved with 1984's
Learning To Crawl, it was still,
serious, attitude rock.
Faced with loss of two band
members from drug overdoses
Hynde and original drummer
Martin Chambers sucked it up
and produced perhaps one of
their best albums.
The hit single back on the Chain
Gang is here, along with Middle
of the Road, and the haunting,
My City Was Gone.
This well remastered edition
offers 7 bonus tracks, including
an alternate of album track I Hurt
You, Hynde's take on the frat
anthem, Tequila, and two tracks
from the 1983 US Festival,
closing this disc with a
roughshod version of Money.
The supplied booklet contains
an insightful, encompassing
essay on the band by Ben
Edmonds, rare pictures, lyrics to
all 10 album tracks, and the
whole thing is enclosed in a
gatefold dig-pak.
It is too bad that Chrissie Hynde
is not always spoken of in the
same breath as other, perhaps
more trendy/art-house/punky
female rockers, yet she certainly
had the right stuff-and
sound-for the times.
Well recommended, especially if
you grew up with these tunes.
And even if you didn't.
Learning To Crawl
Extra Tracks/Remaster
Sire/Real/Rhino
Hard to believe, really, that some
of the music on this new,
remastered, expanded
Pretenders gem is near 25 years
old.
Chrissie Hynde and the boys
were fairly hard-core new-age
punk when they began in the
late 70s, and although the
sound evolved with 1984's
Learning To Crawl, it was still,
serious, attitude rock.
Faced with loss of two band
members from drug overdoses
Hynde and original drummer
Martin Chambers sucked it up
and produced perhaps one of
their best albums.
The hit single back on the Chain
Gang is here, along with Middle
of the Road, and the haunting,
My City Was Gone.
This well remastered edition
offers 7 bonus tracks, including
an alternate of album track I Hurt
You, Hynde's take on the frat
anthem, Tequila, and two tracks
from the 1983 US Festival,
closing this disc with a
roughshod version of Money.
The supplied booklet contains
an insightful, encompassing
essay on the band by Ben
Edmonds, rare pictures, lyrics to
all 10 album tracks, and the
whole thing is enclosed in a
gatefold dig-pak.
It is too bad that Chrissie Hynde
is not always spoken of in the
same breath as other, perhaps
more trendy/art-house/punky
female rockers, yet she certainly
had the right stuff-and
sound-for the times.
Well recommended, especially if
you grew up with these tunes.
And even if you didn't.