Word: albums
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that the songs on their debut album--all but one written and sung by Akron, Ohio's Chrissie Hynde--lack energy. It's just that the spontaneity has disappeared, and everything seems under control. Hynde sings with an assurance only surpassed by the technically excellent guitar-work of James Honeyman "Jimmy" Scott, who comes across as the veritable voice of experience as he deals vibrating, heavy-metal chords...
...notable exception happens to be the best song of the lot. "Stop Your Sobbing," written by Ray Davies of the Kinks some 15 years ago, is oddly the album's freshest, most vital cut--perhaps Nick Lowe's production helped. Released early last year as a single, it features Hynde's versatile voice at its alluring best, and the only upbeat lyrics on the record...
Davies' innocence, apparently ahead of its time in 1964, sounds fresh and different today, while the music--a haunting melody backed with thumping guitar, lilting background vocals and fronted by Hynde's beguiling voice--is the most interesting of the album...
However, unlike Blondie or even Patti Smith, who often provide a similar message, Hynde writes songs too immobile to be enjoyable. This is not a "clarion-call for the Eighties" album: in fact, it has very little vision at all. Instead, it relies on the craftwork of an artisan--Scott--and the strange, appealing voice of this sophisticated woman to pull the music through. It just doesn't pull far enough...
...marching music and Caribbean rhythms. Though he never matched the success of Fats Domino and others who popularized the Byrd piano style, recognition finally came in the '70s when his band, the Blues Scholars, scored with a successful tour through Europe and the U.S., and he produced an album, Live on the Queen Mary, with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney...