Learning To Crawl celebrated Chrissie Hynde’s determination to rock alongside life as a mother. Within a year’s time she married Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, and had a child with him (her second). His band had its biggest-ever success with a song thrust upon them for a John Hughes film, before releasing an album that rode that hit’s coattails. Once Upon A Time sported a slick, synthy sound, thanks to producers Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain. That same team could get the bulk of the blame for the prettified Get Close, but as Chrissie seemed to think it okay, it really is her fault.For starters, the tight unit that propelled most of Learning To Crawl only appears on the closing track, a synth-heavy cover of Hendrix’s “Room Full Of Mirrors”. The ten songs prior to that deliver edgeless pop from a revolving set of musicians, anchored by guitarist Robbie McIntosh and the drummer from Haircut 100.
Only the first single, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”, can remotely be called catchy. The other radio hits were “My Baby” (dripping with sentimentality and including a rather obvious sound effect in a cheering audience) and “Hymn To Her”, a celebration of (take your pick) the Goddess, womynhood, somebody’s mother or all of the above. If not for her wavering voice, there’s little connection to the bite of the first two albums. “Chill Factor” tries to speak for the gender as well, but is a pale copy of her own version of “Thin Line Between Love And Hate”.
Particularly painful are the slightly political rants “Dance!” and “How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?”, which pit ordinary R&B riffs to ill-advised club beats, complete with dated keyboards and vocal modulations. “I Remember You” and “Tradition Of Love” beg to be skipped, but the biggest head-scratcher is “Light Of The Moon”, written by Bowie cohort Carlos Alomar and two modern jazz performers, one of whom can’t even spell Chrissie’s name right on the credits section of his website.
Chrissie is the only Pretender shown on the front cover of Get Close, and when the 1990 model arrived, the name of the “band” was its own joke. Martin Chambers would eventually return to the fold, and every couple of years she’ll put out a new album under the Pretenders name. (Malcolm Foster, who played bass on Learning To Crawl, hasn’t been heard from since.) Still, Chrissie remains an icon and a legend, one of the best voices in rock. And for that, she doesn’t have to do anything else. But sometimes we wish she wouldn’t bother.
The Pretenders Get Close (1986)—1½
2007 expanded, remastered CD: same as 1986, plus 6 extra tracks
Ouch. Now I must burn this record, I suppose. I know you know, but you might want to clarify that Chrissie had "a child" with Jim, lest people think "another child" means he knocked her up twice.
ReplyDeleteAdjusted, thanks.
DeleteOh yes, in absolute agreement that this is the worst album from The Pretenders. The kickass, far out cover of "Room Full of Mirrors" (a huge highlight of the preceding tour) is the best song on the album, so I didn't get why she ditched her touring lineup and the producer. Then I heard the rather strange version of "When I Change My Life" that they came up with, and I got it. (I suspect that the outtake "World Within Worlds" and the lousy first version of "Hold a Candle to This" also come from these sessions.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest, the blame pretty much goes with whom she chose to replace Steve Lillywhite as producers, even if her songwriting did take a bit of a dip. Iovine and Clearmountian, inexplicably, push the guitars back in the mix and overdub tons of gloppy synths and annoyingly tinkly pianos. This proves that they had no clue what made The Pretenders what they were. I still think that original producer Chris Thomas might have made something of most of these songs. He would have let Chrissie indulge her obvious desire to experiment (“How Much Did You Get for Your Soul?”, “Dance!”, “Tradition of Love”) while still retaining the core of the band’s sound. (although he didn’t like “When I Change My Life’, thinking that it was too close to “Birds of Paradise”).
My other favorite is “Hymn to Her”, written by an old high school friend. I find it very moving. This is the one tune where a relatively sparse production enhances the song. Otherwise, the album would have to be totally redone to salvage the tracks.
You don’t mention the equally disastrous supporting tour, during which the bassist and keyboardist were fired. They then had to quickly bring in their “Learning to Crawl” counterparts. However, based on some aural evidence (two live tracks on the UK “My Baby” double EP, live versions of “Private Life” and “Middle of the Road” from Dallas), they didn’t help. They sounded awful. After that, these Pretenders fell apart. We had tickets to a show on the tour, but it was cancelled. We were told it would be rescheduled, but it never was, and we couldn’t get our money back. So, I have plenty of reasons to feel that this whole period was a dud for The Pretenders.
Oh, and Iovine must have thought that the outtake "Reconsider Me" (a Warren Zevon cover) was a potential hit, since he had Stevie Nicks record it the prior year for her "Rock a Little" album. As with the Pretenders' version, it also ended up on the cutting room floor and onto a boxed set.
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