Chrissie Hynde and Pals – Duets Special (Parlophone) (13th Floor Album Review)
Chrissie Hynde, frontwoman of 1980s smash-hit producing, globally-famous, new wave band The Pretenders, has released Duets Special, the 4th studio album under her own name, with a host of famous friends, known on this record as The Pals.
The Pals are an eclectic bunch of musicians, singers and songwriters in their own right with another thing in common: they’re all pretty famous!
k.d. lang, Mark Lanegan, Lucinda Williams, Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, Cat Power, Rufus Wainwright, Carleen Anderson, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Julian Lennon, Debbie Harry, Alan Sparhawk from Low, Shirley Manson from Garbage and The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach is one heck of a contact list and to get them all on one album to cover a bunch of crooning favourites is pretty audacious.
Of the songs picked out for the duets, that too is an eclectic track list that covers most bases.
There’s some classic soul classics in the form of Brenda Holloway’s 1964 hit Every Little Bit Hurts and the smoochy Me And Mrs Jones, a treasured release from Billy Paul in the early 70s.
No compilation of chart-toppers from yesteryear could miss a smash from the king of rock and roll and so Duets includes not one but two from Elvis, Can’t Help Falling In Love and Always On My Mind.
Country gets a turn with the vintage Love Letters, a popular number in 1961 for Kitty Lester and the new alt. genre song County Lines by Cass McCombs from 2011. You could add Sway from The Rolling Stones off their 1971 Sticky Fingers LP, to this group, too.
And they’re not all old-timers with more songs from this century including Low’s 2011 song Try To Sleep, and the 2004 release from Morrissey, formerly of The Smiths, First of the Gang to Die.
But, perhaps, the most interesting choices of songs on this record are slightly obscure, yet very familiar at the same time. Songs you would have heard many times, but maybe not for a while.
Dolphins, a cryptic and engaging ballad from Fred Neil’s 1967 self-titled second album, the confusingly contrary 1975 number 1 I’m Not In Love by 10CC, the brilliantly soulful, yet not their most famous song, (You’re My) Soul And Inspiration sung by The Righteous Brothers in 1966 and an amazingly opportunistic and beautiful rendition of The Beatles 1965 number It’s Only Love penned by Lennon & MacCartney and sung, here, by Hynde and Julian Lennon.
Hynde’s voice was known for belting out great choruses with a high alto, powerful, in-tune and, occasionally, with a slight crack if called for. She seems to have kept a lot of that power, amazingly at the ripe old age of 74, and even tours with what’s left of The Pretenders.
And you’d have to say she’s also pretty brave pitting herself against some of these singers.
k.d. lang’s voice has lost none of that syrup and honey as she massages you with some lovely bluesy lilt. The classical training and natural talent oozes from American Chanteuse Carleen Anderson. Lucinda Williams is, well, Lucinda Williams, a voice so well-used and in the groove that it just fits. Debbie Harry’s voice seems to have matured and she sings with less of the abrasive high notes, now with a slightly husky, alluring tone. Cat Power brings her female version of Neil Young that’s gained a worldwide following. And Shirley Manson is, I swear, chanelling the aforementioned Elvis at times!
Of the boys, Dave Gahan and Rufus Wainwright win the best singers competition hands down! But that’s not to say the performances from the rest are not great. Alan Sparhawk’s bountiful bass is smooth as silk, and while Dan Auerbach doesn’t quite have the righteous stuff, it’s still a cute track. And Julian Lennon’s apple hasn’t fallen far from dad John’s tree, even if it doesn’t have the charming scouser intonation.
This does seem to be an unusual collection of songs bringing together an unusual posse of performers and there’s really nothing offensive about this album The singers are, collectively, top-notch and the low-fi produced songs are worth a listen.
I would suggest there’s method in this madness, however, and the release date gives us a hint of the point of this LP.
Christmas is just 2 months away and, in the UK at least, the market is still hungry for records that everyone can singalong to in the warm glow of festive spirit (literally and figuratively).
Christmas number one? Watch this space!
Alex Robertson
Duets is out now on Parlophone Records
