The Pretenders – ‘Relentless’ album review: Chrissie Hynde still as ferocious as ever
Chrissie Hynde has practically been rock royalty for the past two decades. From her work with The Pretenders to inspiring legions of aspiring rock stars to pick up their instruments, Hynde could easily rest on her laurels as one of the mothers of modern rock and roll for the rest of her life. While most artists of Hynde’s age might take their foot off the gas, Relentless proves she’s still interested in seeing where the music takes her.
After a surprise performance at Glastonbury this year, fans saw the many artists Hynde inspired onstage with her, including Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Johnny Marr of The Smiths. While their set may have been filled with the greatest hits from the band’s long career, this latest record is the sound of Hynde taking cues from the people she helped inspire.
Working alongside James Walbourne, Hynde has assembled the sturdiest batch of songs this lineup has ever produced, toeing the line between abject rock and roll bombast and ballads that would take most songwriters many years of living to reach.
Storming out of the gate with ‘Losing My Sense of Taste’, Hynde sounds like she is ripped straight out of 1978, talking about all of the manufactured artists that climb up the charts and how taste is falling by the wayside on the hit parade. While the melodic sensibilities haven’t changed since the band’s glory years, the album’s absolute highlight comes in its careful attention to chord progressions.
Since Hynde has been writing songs for so long, none of the traditional song structures seem to satisfy her anymore. Combing through the chords of every song, Hynde comes through with the strangest set of chord changes since the likes of George Harrison, delicately weaving her melodies together while switching between major and minor.
Although Hynde is the star of the show throughout most of the project, Walbourne’s attention to detail behind the fretboard has given the band a shot in the arm since 2008. While he isn’t the same dynamic firecracker as James-Honeymann Scott, he isn’t trying to be either. Coming from the school of artists like Marr and Andy Summers, Walbourne is interested in creating sonic landscapes, crafting guitar breaks that fit somewhere between The Smiths, Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine with his use of atmospheric drones.
The sonic fingerprint left by producer David Wrench can’t be overlooked, either. Having produced for modern artists like Frank Ocean and Arlo Parks, Wrench is able to reinterpret Hynde’s songs through a modern lens, bringing an airiness to ballads like ‘Look Away’ while knowing when to bring out the distortion on ‘Vanglorious’.
Throughout the album, Hynde also tries to figure out where she stands in the rock landscape today. Although she may have had hits back in the day, every song has a nervy energy, as if Hynde is wondering how well her newer material will measure up to songs like ‘I’ll Stand By You’.
Whereas most artists would try to remake their past glory, songs like ‘Let the Sun Come In’ are brilliant examples of Hynde refusing to give her audience the same old song, saying that it’s no use getting old when there’s more work to be done. Even the classic Pretenders cuts on the record like ‘A Love’ have a few tricks up their sleeve, including a strange sequence that never feels resolved.
Granted, some of the album’s strengths could also be counted among its weaknesses. While the greatest moments on the record feel like the band undergoing musical reinvention, not all of them are cut out to be singles, like the drastic headtrip in ‘Just Let It Go’, which takes a few listens to click with listeners fully.
Bringing the album to a grand finale, Hynde’s final ballad, ‘I Think About You Daily’, deserves to be ranked among her best ballads, speaking candidly about the great musicians and friends she lost. With the help of breathtaking string work by Jonny Greenwood, Hynde leaves her audience on a sullen note as if to remind them to make the most of their short time on this Earth.
Then again, that mindset is what Relentless is all about. Nothing in this life is guaranteed, and Hynde is making sure that she’s still performing every song as if it’s the last that she will ever write. Just like the title would imply, Hynde doesn’t appear to be letting up for a second across her four decades in the music industry.
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