This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Nobody says the F-word quite like Chrissie Hynde does. Or at least like she used to. For my money, that moment in Precious — the first song on The Pretenders’ first album back in 1980 — when she spits out, “I’m too precious, so f— off!” is a classic statement of rock rebellion, right up there with Little Richard’s “A wop bop a loo bop, a lop bam boom” or Pete Townshend’s “Hope I die before I get old.”
Sadly, it’s been a long time since Chrissie had that much brass in pocket. As early as 1983’s Middle Of The Road, she was complaining, “I’m not the cat I used to be, I’ve got a kid, I’m 33.” Assuming she wasn’t fudging her age, that means Hynde is pushing 50 these days. Not quite the middle of the road anymore, even if it is still a fair distance from the end of it.
But no matter where she sees herself on the road of life, it’s pretty clear from the lacklustre, downbeat ¡Viva El Amor! — her first studio album since 1995’s Last Of The Independents — that she’s running out of steam. Never mind the leather pants, the raccoon eyeliner and Bettie Page bangs she still sports; the reality is that Hynde seems to have completed her metamorphosis from the sex kitten / party animal / bitch goddess of her youth into the hopeless romantic / dope farmer / Earth mother of Independents or the unplugged live album Isle Of View. In other words: She’s traded sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll for love, homegrown and light rock.
And I do mean light. Of the slim pickings on !Viva El Amor! — a dozen tracks over just 45 minutes — the bulk are lightweight mid-tempo janglers or full-blown ballads. Worse, many feel tossed off or half-finished, as if Hynde (who co-wrote half the album) either churned them out on deadline or just lost interest midway through. Only a few rock out with enough spirit to make decent use of drummer Martin Chambers’ powerhouse propulsion: The sardonic Popstar, with its sneeringly nostalgic chorus of “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” and the pro-dope anthem Legalize Me, which is basically a mish-mash of riffs from Middle Of The Road and her 1981 track Louie, Louie.
At least she also brought along something from the ’80s that’s far more welcome: Her one-of-a-kind voice, long one of the finest in rock, which has lost none of its spine-tingling power, crystal-clear tone or heart-tugging vibrato.
It’s just too bad that on !Viva El Amor!, she has f-all to say with it.
