Hate For Sale, The Pretenders’ eleventh studio album, is the first album to be recorded with the now longest-standing touring line-up of the group and the first to be written collaboratively by Chrissie Hynde and guitarist James Walbourne. It comes four years after their last effort ‘Alone’ cutting the time between recent albums in half (‘Alone’ came a mere 8 years after its predecessor ‘Break Up the Concrete’).
Let’s face it The Pretenders were never the most productive of bands – four of their albums coming in a spurt of energy between their formation in 1980 and 1986 during which they managed regular output despite losing two of their founder members to different drugs within 12 months between 1982-83.
‘Hate For Sale’ sees original drummer Martin Chambers back on the stool for a record that is very much in the spirit of their last outing ‘Alone’ – though it does sound more like a vintage Pretenders album to these ears without the proto-rock jangle of Black Keys Dan Auerbach producing that gave ‘Alone’ a rather particular taste. For this one Stephen Street is back (the producer of 1995’s acoustic live ‘The Isle of View’ and 1999’s ‘¡Viva El Amor!’) and it’s much more satisfying as a result.
If you liked the Pretenders stripped back Rock and Roll and rolling guitars of their 1980 debut then sonically we’re still there – that simplicity of Hynde’s voice and the guitar that everything is based on. There’s plenty to like too from the stomp of single ‘Turf Account Daddy’ to the Blues-tinged ‘Didn’t Want to Be This Lonely’ and the lilting ballad ‘Can’t Hurt a Fool’ which I particularly love. It’s a song that shows a million Nashville-enriched newcomers that much as they try they’re always just a mere shadow and forty years too late…
8/10
Tracklist:
Hate For Sale
The Buzz
Lightning Man
Turf Accountant Daddy
You Can’t Hurt a Fool
I Didn’t Know When To Stop
Maybe Love Is In NYC
Junkie Walk
Didn’t Want To Be This Lonely
Crying in Public