Pretenders II (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by this CD.

First, track 3 of this album is my all-time favorite Pretenders song, Message Of Love.

Second, this isn't a very good album as a whole, but if you compare it to the group's debut album, it becomes that much more disappointing. Sophomore slump, regression to the mean, whatever you want to call it. It rocks, but the overall material is weak. No matter, they'd bounce back with the next one.

I dig the fact there's no band name or title on the cover and I don't know if I like it for artistic reasons or because it must have driven the label's promotion department crazy. I think they ended up putting a sticker on the shrinkwrap?

Press of the time:

• Trouser Press: "disappointing in its pacing and reiterated techniques"
• Smash Hits (7 out of 10): "Whatever else, it's not pompous."
• Rolling Stone (★★★★): "passionate, recklessly engaged, and, in some ways, far richer that its predecessor"
• Stereo Review: "the biggest rock-and-roll letdown in recent memory"
• Musician: "Disappointing, but not the unmitigated disaster"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #10
• Billboard Rock: #11
• CashBox: #14
• Rolling Stone: #6

Tracks: The best stuff: Message Of Love (#5 rock) and Talk Of The Town. The good filler: I Go To Sleep (written by then-boyfriend Ray Davies), Pack It Up, and Louie Louie. Meh: Birds Of Paradise and Day After Day. The rest.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I originally purchased this album in the '80s solely for Message Of Love. Didn't listen to the rest of it much, if ever. The fact that titillating titles such as The Adultress and Bad Boys Get Spanked didn't capture the attention of a teenaged boy speaks for itself. I probably would have been better off picking up a copy of their Extended Play instead.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Learning to Crawl (1983)
Pretenders (1980)