2008-10-28 - 7:45 a.m. I downloaded--spent money!--on the new Pretenders album. Taken in the context of a long, often disappointing career and many years in a commercial-rock hellhole ("I'll Stand By you"? Blech), I have to say the songs here are surprisingly okay. The title track is a weird little Bo Diddley-beat number with a really interesting vocal, and there is a lot of staccato rockablly-ish tracks that hearken to the old, nervous, punky Chrissie that won everyone over in 1979. Other albums I've enjoyed this week so far: The latest by Chicago singer-songwriter The Gunshy, a series of unsettling punk-folk songs based on letters his grandfather wrote to his grandmother in WWII. Appropriate, since this youngish fellow sings like a wizened old man. Note: this is not easy listening, and a little goes a long way. On the same label, the second album by Mustangs and Madras, a slab of brash post-punk that doesn't stint on the second half of the equation. thoughts? (0 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact