The Pretenders: Relentless review – recalls their early-80s imperial phase

If the Pretenders’ releases in the 2010s blurred the boundary between Chrissie Hynde the solo artist and watered-down iterations of the band that were over-reliant on session musicians, then Relentless goes some way to correcting this lack of continuity. This 12th album finds the partnership between Hynde and guitarist/songwriting foil James Walbourne – which so lit up 2020’s Hate for Sale – developing further. Opener Losing My Sense of Taste sets the tone, Walbourne’s washes of guitar noise very prominent in the mix, while Hynde wonders whether she’s suffering from “senile dementia or some kind of psychosis”.

That same interplay informs Merry Widow, on which Hynde gleefully relates how she’s a divorcee, “but I feel like a merry, merry widow” as Walbourne gradually ratchets up the tension before cutting loose in gloriously OTT fashion. Elsewhere, A Love and Let the Sun Come In recall the jangle of their early-80s imperial phase. The ballads are equally well executed, most notably the closing I Think About You Daily, with Jonny Greenwood’s hypnotic string arrangement imbuing Hynde’s uncharacteristically swagger-free vocals with a powerful sense of regret and vulnerability.