So why is Pretenders on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
It’s happened a number of times now: just as I’m writing a piece for this here best 1,000 albums project, something extremely timely is going on in the world or in my own life that ends up being extremely relevant to the piece.
In this case, I just happened to catch the new limited series on Hulu about the Sex Pistols, called Pistol as it turns out. It’s a fairly good series with some drawbacks, opinions I pull the trigger on in the Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (#188 of best 1,000 albums ever) piece.
I mention this because there’s a female character with a fairly large role on Pistol who turned out to be Chrissie Hynde. This led me to learn more about Hynde (in addition to the Sex Pistols, which really is its own fascinating story).
Hynde was in bands with, played music with, or was generally around the music scene with many of the most famous punk and new wave bands in both the U.S. and UK. I was particularly blown away that one of her first bands included Mark Mothersbaugh, who would go on to be in Devo.
All of which is to say that by the time Chrissie Hynde went on to form the Pretenders in the late 1970s, she was an accomplished musician ready to take the next leap. And I believe that’s a large reason why the Pretenders self-titled debut sounds so self-assured, unique, and uniquely good in equal measure.
It’s an album that should be played straight through – exactly what the album format was designed for, after all!
It helps of course that the lead track, “Precious,” is the best song on the album, a fantastically fun full blast of punky new wave, punctuated delightfully by Hynde’s vocals.
I dig the driving, soaring guitar on “The Phone Call,” which could almost have been pulled off an early Midnight Oil record.
“Brass in Pocket” is one of the Pretenders’ best known songs, and shows off how ably the band can pivot into a much more mainstream and accessible direction while still maintaining a wholly original sound.
Some stats & info about Pretenders
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock, Rock Music, Pop, Pop Music, New Wave, Punk Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #152
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Pretenders released? 1980
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #736 out of 1,000
Pretenders on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Pretenders that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
You’re so precious.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.