"Relentless": Pretenders' new release

        Seemingly unsure as to where they fit in as they negotiate a fifth decade at the coalface, Chrissie Hynde has kept the Pretenders quietly chugging along of late, while exploring new directions—jazz-tinged covers; Bob Dylan covers — on a solo career that, more than anything, bought her time.

For what is only the twelfth Pretenders album, Hynde has dispensed with the produc­tion services of 2020’s Hate For Sale helmsman Stephen Street in favour of David Wrench, the Grammy-nominated Welshman, who brings a broad but playful palette. On-off drum­mer Martin Chambers is off again but, as on Hate For Sale, her songwriting partner is James Walbourne, current lead guitarist and Richard Thompson’s son-in-law.

For all its boundary pushing, Relentless accepts that since Hynde’s voice is instantly recognizable whether she’s hollering or crooning, it defines the Pretenders: she’s a lifer, unable to escape, even if she wanted to. Endless personnel shuffles may bring renewal, but Hynde has always been a keen student of her own history. 

Instinctively, Hynde has always been a rocker, even when her walk hasn’t wholly vindicated her talk. When she rocks on this aptly titled, almighty whoosh of fresh air, she’s heavier and denser than ever. 

Relentless is not, though, one-paced, and Hynde has always blossomed when she has something to prove; here it’s finding a place for the Pretenders in 2023. Flexing her songwrit­ing muscles, the percussive Your House Is On Fire has the gall to begin like a madrigal, but from its first moments Let The Sun Come In almost breaks into — of all things — Shiny Happy People. 

There’s real new ground broken when Jonny Greenwood pops up to add a swirling string arrangement to the graceful closer I Think About You Daily, where Hynde ditches her swagger to sound more vulnerable than she has in years as she whispers, “I never could take good advice”.

Surely Relentless is how Chrissie Hynde always wanted the Pretenders to sound.