The Pretenders
Learning to Crawl

THE REVIEW

The show must go on.

The unforeseeable, what crashes over you while you're busy making other plans... how much can you let it govern your life without deeply changing your own internal level of existence? The answer Chrissie Hynde must have given herself, despite existential speculations, must have been something like a middle finger waved at whoever weaves the fabric of human destinies. There was no going back!

What a character Chrissie is! Is it worth insisting on this well-explored theme in a review of the Pretenders? I think so, not only because of the influence the group's ex-machina goddess's personality has on their stylistic mark, but also because banality and familiarity, at least in a review, can represent an asset: they're based on a universally acquired set of values in the rock'n'roll community of practice. Therefore, I dare to emphasize our heroine, for whom, for once, the dreadful phrase "woman with balls" is not far-fetched.

"I willed it, strongly willed it." This could be her programmatic manifesto. Only great ambition and strength of spirit (not to mention immense talent, of course) can lead a girl from American suburbia to realize the teenage dream many of us have: to become a rockstar, packing up and moving to England, and all this after years of groundwork without ever compromising artistically. Then add to this the fact she managed to marry her childhood idol, none other than Ray Davies: as if I were to snag Avril Lavigne!

Given this background, Chrissie's extraordinary response to the tragic events that struck her creation could not have been other than immediately confronting - almost challenging - grief and emptiness.

"Back on The Chain Gang" was written and recorded in the four days following the death of the band's guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, with the precise intention of channeling the suffering into artistic creation. However, the song expresses anything but self-pity, despite immortalizing the immense melancholy felt; it mostly reflects the admirable intent and necessity not to be crushed by human life's contingencies, using the cathartic power of pain to create a perfect tribute. I don't think there are better ways to honor the memory of those who are no longer with us.

But that's not all! Not even a year later came the turn of Peter Farndon, former band bassist, with whom the leader was particularly attached. Even this isn't enough to stop such a war machine, and the Pretenders continue working on the new album, which would be ready nearly three years after their last LP effort (by the way, let me open a long parenthesis... anyone who says that "Pretenders II" is qualitatively crushed between its predecessor and successor is wrong. Its nature as a transitional album does not prevent it from containing masterpieces within it, chief among them the terrifying "The Adultress," relentless and merciless like the truck from "Duel)."

"Learning to Crawl" might not be the band's best album, but it is certainly the most refined. It completes the transformation of the group into one of mass appeal. The songs, without necessarily sacrificing anything in impact and quality, become perfect vehicles to break the charts and get radio play. Take for example "Middle of the Road," which opens the dance. Simply the quintessence of rock: an overwhelming jingle jangle on steroids accompanied by a percussive approach (courtesy of a highly underestimated drummer like Martin Chambers) that has the gentleness of an artillery bombardment. The perfect pop counterpoint is represented by an infectious chorus. Chrissie is convincing as rarely before, seductive, elegant, and feline (could it be random that she introduces her harmonica solo with a meow?).

Not that their punk roots are completely forgotten, huh! "Watching the Clothes" seems to come straight out of the first album. "My City Was Gone" is instead a mechanical funk that portrays the wild urbanization of Ohio, the musician's birthplace. But it is now the ballads that are in the spotlight, a sign of a shift in the leader's sensibility: "Thumbelina" is almost country, whereas "Show Me" is highly refined pop. The best is "2000 Miles," also inspired by James Honeyman-Scott's death, showcasing Chrissie Hynde's tender side. In later slow pieces, she will never again warm hearts like she does with this song.

This is the last noteworthy album by the Pretenders, but there are no regrets. One can say that they have expressed everything they had to say, and that maturity has brought craft and routine. What remains is the testament of a band at its peak, finding an unrepeatable balance between artistic fullness and expressive urgency.