Consumer Guide Album

Pretenders: ¡Viva el Amor! [Warner Bros., 1999]
Pretenders songs post-Learning To Crawl emulated the concision and riff-riding lyricism of "Brass in Pocket" while doing without the passion and focus that made it so fiercely erotic, so vivacious and fuck-you, so independent, so special. They felt pop, felt tuneful and shaped and legibly emotional, but in the end they were atmospheric. Here Chrissie Hynde's writing is sharp again--the riffs have an edge, the lyrics bite. There's some strong Janis Joplin soul, a pretty ballad in Spanish I bet her young Colombian husband understands, a closer with the ridiculously in-character refrain "You bring the biker out in me," a line that goes "It's only baby's breath" in your head long after it's over. And the grudge she bears against the opener's "Popstar" is such a joy to her that she rides the "Hang On Sloopy" motive as if she thought of it yesterday, driving three consecutive song-doctored classics before her: one that references her circulatory system, one that advises love "From the Heart Down," and one that begins with the latest sally in the class war she'll never surrender: "If this is public transportation/What are you doing here?" A−