Simultaneously raw, honest, angry and poignant (Learning To Crawl - Pretenders)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	Learning To Crawl - Pretenders
Date:	10/05/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very listenable to, contains some very good songs

Disadvantages: None of any significance

SINGERS & MUSICIANS

CHRISSIE HYNDE - Lead vocals, guitar
MARTIN CHAMBERS - Drums, vocals
ROBBIE McINTOSH - Guitar, vocals
MALCOLM FOSTER - Bass guitar, vocals
BILLY BREMNER - Lead guitar on some tracks
TONY BUTLER - Bass guitar on some tracks
ANDREW BODNER - Bass guitar and vocals on Thin Line Between Love And Hate
PAUL CARRACK - Piano and vocals on Thin Line Between Love And Hate

ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY CHRISSIE HYNDE, EXCEPT FOR "THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE"

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"Learning To Crawl" was The Pretenders' third album, and it reached no.11 in the UK album charts in January of 1984. Two promotional singles were taken from the album, the first of which was "Back On The Chain Gang" which reached no.17 in the UK singles charts in October 1982, and the second was "2000 Miles" which made no.15 in November 1983. It's interesting to note that the album didn't chart until well over a year after "Back On The Chain Gang" was at no.17. I'm also very surprised that the two singles didn't reach higher positions, as I seem to remember everyone loving them at the time.

"Learning To Crawl" is an album that I listened to a lot during 1983 and 1984, and it was a very peculiar time of my life. If I listen to it now, or hear any of the tracks played on the radio, I am transported back to those rather dark days of the early 1980s, and listen to them with mixed feelings. All in all though, I feel it is a very worthwhile album, with some wonderful punk-influenced pop/rock tracks. Chrissie Hynde for the most part, is one of my all-time favourite songwriters, although I feel she did her best stuff between 1980 and about 1985-ish.

Here follows my track-by-track analysis, which I promise isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, and as usual, if it's not your scene - then just jump ahead a few paragraphs.

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1) MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
This begins with a very expectant-sounding drumbeat, then launches into a very uptempo, slightly punk-influenced piece of pure rock/pop music. The track has a great tune, is high energy, very percussive and drives along at steady, fast pace. All of the instrumentalists are very in sync with one another, and this is the type of song that I feel suits Chrissie Hynde's voice best. The song is largely about Chrissie taking more of a middle of the road stance in life after having had a child - observing and still continuing with the same rather anarchical beliefs, but from a non-participating distance. For me, this is one of the very best songs that Chrissie Hynde has ever written - and it has a wonderful, screaming harmonica piece in the middle, which carries the song along to its close.
....... 10/10

2) BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG
This begins with guitar playing the main tune, then the whole band joins in with Chrissie taking the lead vocals with what on the surface, is just an ordinary pop song - but it needs listening to. For me, this is an extremely poignant, almost desperate song, but I don't want to say why - that's one of the bits inside my head that I keep private. Though I can't be 100% sure, I think this song was written for the deceased James Honeyman-Scott (founder member and lead guitarist with The Pretenders). What a wonderful line..... "the powers that be who force us to live like we do, bring me to my knees when I see what they've done to you". As with "Middle Of The Road" above, this is one of my all-time favourite Pretenders songs, and I can't help feeling a little dagger of sadness poke into my psyche each time I hear it. Wonderful!
....... 10/10

3) TIME THE AVENGER
This track begins with some rather raw, aggressive-sounding guitar and drums, then Chrissie joins in taking the lead vocals. I'm not overly sure what she's singing about, despite the words being very clear, and it seems to me as if it's a bit of a dig at somebody - maybe a past lover? The tune of this is quite unusual, raw and percussive, and though it's good, it doesn't do a tremendous amount for me. I can work out that the song is about time being an avenger - time meting out some cruel punishments as it slips by without us hardly noticing, but there are other undercurrents in the words which make me feel the song is about a person, imaginary or real.
....... 7/10

4) WATCHING THE CLOTHES
I find this song a bit depressing; it's not the overall sound of it, as it's a high energy, fast, punk-ish sort of song - maybe it speaks to me about the dropping out of an active existence into a domestic one, and that's something I find the concept of, a total comedown. Chrissie is again speaking in the words of becoming domesticated as her life circumstances changed - Saturday nights used to be for partying; now they're spent in the launderette watching the clothes go round. This track is great from a musical point of view, but I don't like the subject matter of the words.
....... 7/10

5) SHOW ME
This begins with a few eerie notes on guitar, then launches into a gentle (for Chrissie Hynde) and rather pretty sounding song. This is another track about what was then her new-found lifestyle, becoming a mother and having to be responsible. The song is a celebration really of her then new child, the words making comparisons between the purity and innocence of a young baby, and the harshness of the outside world. It's not a bad song, but does go on a little bit, and isn't quite my cup of tea. I hate mawkishness regarding the softer side of the human condition, and I hasten to say that this song isn't mawkish in the slightest; maybe it's just that I can't totally relate to it.
....... 6/10

6) THUMBELINA
Wow this song rocks!.....with a steady, fast, driving rhythm that is highly percussive (maybe a little rockabilly-ish here and there) and Chrissie taking the vocals. This song touches on something very deeply in me that is powerfully linked to the bit in "Back On The Chain Gang" that I won't talk about. This is a wonderful, non-soppy, non-mawkish song from mother to daughter, as they travel across America, which is belted out with a punkish/rockabilly-ish perfection that would be impossible to improve upon. Chrissie at her best again!
....... 10/10

7) MY CITY WAS GONE
This track begins with low guitar and high percussion, sounding just very slightly sleazy. The rest of the band joins in, with Chrissie taking the lead vocals. The words speak of how she went back to Ohio, and found it totally different to how she left it. I'm not sure if she's speaking of an actual visit to Ohio or if it was a dream. The reason why I say that, is sometimes I dream of my home town in that it's fallen to pieces, gone.....that being a subconscious representation in my mind of its real-life deterioration. I love this track because it's about loss in a way.....a loss of the past that an attempt to travel back to had been made, without success - whether in dreams or reality. Kind of like a wake up call. There's a lovely dirty guitar break in the middle too.
....... 9/10

8) THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE
This is the only song on the album that wasn't written by Chrissie Hynde. It begins with sad, almost desperate-sounding piano, then Chrissie joins in with the main tune, backed vocally here and there by the rest of the band. I don't like this song, as it's kind of revengeful, and revenge is something I hate - even if the perpetrator does feel it's justified. I find this song depressing, and it can bring me down. Aside from the words, the whole atmosphere of it reminds me of a depressing, late Sunday evening when it's drizzling rain in February, and you have to get up early the next morning to go to a job you hate. In reality though, the song is about a woman who attacks her partner out of anger and revenge, and he ends up in a hospital bed!
....... 4/10

9) I HURT YOU
This song begins with plodding, crashing guitar chords and equally plodding, crashing drums. The beat stays steady, as Chrissie's voice joins in. It sounds to me as though this song is "Thin Line Between Love And Hate" in Chrissie's own words; a song of revenge - "I hurt you, because you hurt me". I could be very wrong about this, but I'm wondering if Chrissie intends this song to be another (like "Back On The Chain Gang") about James Honeyman-Scott, or maybe Ray Davies? - but from the other side? As far as Chrissie having had a relationship with James Honeyman-Scott is concerned, the information available is erratic, in that some say she did and some say she didn't. I cannot find anything that Chrissie has said herself on the matter. "Back On The Chain Gang" is a wistful, loving memory of a person.....but this song is the woman on the attack - getting her own back on how the addictive behaviour ("never trust a user with your television overnight") of her man (despite her loving him) brought so much difficulty into their lives. This song positively oozes anger, but has a desperately poignant guitar break in the middle that says it all really.....kind of saying "I love you, but we can't go on like this".
....... 8/10

10) 2000 MILES
This song fades in with guitar, looped, fuzzed or whatever, to make it sound Christmassy. As far as the actual sound of the song is concerned, it is one of the most Christmassy pop/rock tracks I've ever heard. I'm not sure if the song is intended to be about James Honeyman-Scott, Ray Davies, an unidentified lover of Chrissie's - or a fictitious person. God this song is sad! The poetic images in the words are wonderful...... "in these frozen and silent nights, sometimes, in a dream you appear....." My own personal feelings of poignancy about this song are directly connected to "Back On The Chain Gang" and "Thumbelina" (above). It always used to amuse me though when I'd watch The Pretenders perform "2000 Miles" on Top Of The Pops - such a sad song, yet they'd all be smiling, swaying around, covered in balloons and streamers, really getting into the positive side of the Christmas spirit. One of my all-time favourite Christmas songs, so skilfully written and performed.
....... 10/10

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The Pretenders I feel are one of the great bands to have risen out of the post punk era. "Learning To Crawl" was a kind of a stepping stone out of raw punk for them, into the world of straight rock and pop. The whole album contains some very strong songs.....even the ones I'm not so keen on. I haven't actually, apart from "Get Close" which was released in 1986, heard any of The Pretenders' later albums, so can't judge if they went very middle of the road, or retained that somewhat raw, punk-influenced sound. The whole band, especially from an instrumental point of view, are so very in sync with one another on this album.

I'd average a guess at saying "Learning To Crawl" is possibly some way up my top 100 albums of all time. I love the blend of poignancy, high energy, softness and rawness mingled, tainted with a little anger here and there. I'm not sure if the album would catch onto anyone under a certain age (let's say anyone under 40-ish), but who knows?

"Learning To Crawl" can be purchased from Amazon as follows:-

New: from £5.10 to £41.73 (it's not clear if any of these are on cassette, CD or DVD)
Used: from £1.71 to £40.40 (only one seller states that his copy is on CD)

and from play.com at £4.99 for a new CD. This is also stated to be an expanded and re-mastered version of the album.

Out of those purchasing choices above, I know which one I'd personally go for!

Thanks for reading!

Summary: The Pretenders in transition