OH, BUT
IT'S HARD TO
LIVE BY THE RULES
I NEVER COULD
AND STILL NEVER DO
Pretenders II
is the second
studio album
by British
rock band
issued on
Sire Records in
August 1981.
It incorporates
two songs
that had been released
as singles
in the UK
and placed on
an EP
in the US.
It peaked at #7
on the
UK Albums Chart
and #10
on the
Billboard 200,
and has been certified
a gold record
for sales by
the RIAA.
It is the
final album
by the original
line-up,
as the following year
bassist
Pete Farndon
was dismissed
and guitarist
James Honeyman-Scott
died
in the
same week.
Farndon died
in 1983,
and a
new line-up
would make
the band's
next album,
Learning to Crawl.
History
The success
of their 1979
debut album
created a
great demand
for more material
from the
fledgling band;
however,
a lack of songs
precluded the
quick release
of a follow-up album.
In the UK,
the band released
two hit singles
in 1980
and early 1981,
"Talk of the Town"
followed by
"Message of Love".
In the US,
where standalone singles
had become rare,
these tracks
were combined
with three others
for a stopgap
extended play release
in March 1981
simply titled
Extended Play.
Pretenders II
was released
two months later
to mixed
critical reception
arguably because
many of the songs
were viewed as
too similar to
(though not quite as groundbreaking as)
the band's debut.
Nevertheless,
several of the
album's songs
became hits
and the album
has increased in
critical stature
with time.
As on their previous album,
the band includes
a song by
Ray Davies
of
The Kinks,
although in this case
"I Go to Sleep",
written by
Davies in 1965,
was not recorded
by the group.
Band leader
Chrissie Hynde
and Davies
were in a relationship
at the time
of the album's recording,
and would eventually
have a daughter,
Natalie Rae Hynde,
in 1983.
"Talk of the Town",
though rumoured
to be about
her relationship
with Davies,
was inspired by
a fan Hynde
had encountered
on the band's
first tour
and whom she
regretted not
speaking to
at the time.
The album also
includes the
sexually-forward tunes
"Bad Boys Get Spanked"
and
"The Adultress",
with perhaps
the album's most
ambitious track,
"Day After Day"
spinning a
common
second-album narrative
of unaccustomed celebrity,
with the band
rushing from
gig to gig,
hotel to hotel,
head-spun
from the swiftness
of it all.
The single version
of the song ends
with a guitar solo
that gradually
fades out;
the album edit
ends suddenly,
mid-solo,
with the sound
of a
crashing fighter plane.
The album's final track,
"Louie, Louie",
is an
original composition
and not
a version
of the
identically titled
and often
covered song by
Richard Berry.
In 2000
it was voted
number 403
in Colin Larkin's
All Time Top
1000 Albums.
The following year,
twenty years after
its release,
it was certified gold
in the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment