Post Description

Pop, rock.

Chrissie Hynde has been a rock star for more than fifty years. The Pretenders have not been together quite that long, but Hynde was already making her name as a girl about town and rock-star-in-waiting in London. She has lived the life full-time for all of that period. It is a surprise, then, that she does not fully appreciate the credit that has accrued with that history, and how people still want to hear what she has to say.

Supporting their tenth Album in 2023, The Pretenders initially booked themselves into smaller venues, before it became clear that they had underestimated the love that the world had for her and the band. Eventually the tour went so well that a live album was made and released. Did Hynde not think she was in the class of National Treasures that could call on her friends to make a duets album? The story is that a friend had to remind her that it was an opportunity, if not a duty, to do so. Consider Duets Special an opportunity/duty fulfilled.

Hynde clearly attacked this project with thought, verve, and enthusiasm, because Duets Special is a beauty. She has previously been a guest star on a number of these projects, including one, memorably, with Frank Sinatra, but she’s taken a different approach from Ol’ Blue Eyes, who had a full orchestra and generally recorded things separately from his guests. Hynde pilots pared-down arrangements throughout, and although there are a limited number of harmonies, there is interaction and mutual trust.  These are not call-and-response duets, and none of them appear on a recent list of the very best duets, but new conversations are started and, in some cases, completed in unexpected and diverting ways. We cannot divine the song choices, which veer between some of the most famous songs ever and some much deeper cuts.

The pairing of Hynde with k.d. lang on “Me & Mrs. Jones” provides an exquisite opening. We all know the sweaty sensuousness of the original, the uncontrollable passion of a hot Philadelphia summer, which Billy Paul MUST share. Hynde and lang can clearly still have their moments, but there is more perspective in their experience. Perhaps both of them having an affair with Mrs. Jones, but if so there is no rancor between good friends. Share and share alike, whether it is the lyrics or the experience. Maybe neither of them are, and the two buddies are just shooting the breeze about times gone by, or might still be.

At its best the album creates alternate realities. Putting together Dave Gahan and Hynde certainly brings to mind a riot of leather (or pleather for a Vegan) and noise, but what we get on “Dolphins” is nothing other than two stars imagining how differently things could have turned out. “Yes, we have been alternative or indie rock stars for a long time, but what we are at our core is performers. If fate had given us a career singing sad songs as chansons, we would have thrived there also, and you would know us for that.”  It would be better than not being stars at all, and may even be better than what my actual career served up to me at my lowest points.

Covering the Rolling Stones with Lucinda Williams (“Sway”) was clearly a joy, and the same joy is apparent with Debbie Harry (“Try to Sleep”). A huge chunk of rock history is present, and firing, in those choices and pairings. There is also humor. It would be very easy to imagine that Brandon Flowers would have had a picture of Hynde on his wall, as per “I’m Not In Love,” but surely Hynde is jesting when she says that she reciprocated. Certainly, her tone of voice suggests that she is humoring an admirer, and that they are both having a riot.

There are many, many touching moments. The project was apparently conceived after the death of Mark Lanegan, so we don’t know how and when their version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” was conceived and implemented; it is nevertheless a highlight. Hynde covers Low with Harry, but performs with Alan Sparhawk himself on Cass McCoombs’ “County Line,” taking the lead (which she doesn’t do on most of the tracks) and seems to be holding his hand as he brings his talent back into the light.

Not every track on Duets Special hits as hard or as well, but the execution of each is purposeful, and we would all want to be about when the stars were shooting the breeze after the recordings.

Tracks:
01. Me & Mrs Jones (feat. k.d. lang)
02. Can’t Help Falling In Love (feat. Mark Lanegan)
03. Sway (feat. Lucinda Williams)
04. Dolphins (feat. Dave Gahan)
05. First Of The Gang To Die (feat. Cat Power)
06. Always On My Mind (feat. Rufus Wainwright)
07. Every Little Bit Hurts (feat. Carleen Anderson)
08. I’m Not In Love (feat. Brandon Flowers)
09. It’s Only Love (feat. Julian Lennon)
10. Try To Sleep (feat. Debbie Harry)
11. County Line (feat. Alan Sparhawk)
12. Love Letters (feat. Shirley Manson)
13. (You’re My) Soul And Inspiration (feat. Dan Auerbach)

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

Complete album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqTPV_Dpzw8