Pretenders II

"These 40th Anniversary Deluxe Editions provide a rich trove of material for Pretenders completists to pour over while we wait for that documentary".

Read review

"[Pretenders' first two] albums have been repackaged now, remixed by original producer Chris Thomas, and come accompanied by a clutch of demos, rarities and live performances, many of them previously unreleased; there are photographs and elegant liner notes. The whole shebang has been curated by Hynde herself ... Revisiting these two records, and their accompaniments, reminds us just how extraordinary this moment was, and what a role the Pretenders played in transforming popular music as the decade tipped into the 1980s: a band sprung from the punk scene of the late '70s who covered the The Kinks, the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie", Jackie Wilson's "Higher And Higher", but who brought us a vision of what was to come: an uncompromising female lead singer, writing about sex workers, spankers, adulterers, who embraced pop and helped usher in the new era of MTV. Few bands felt so new, few bands had such persuasive momentum".