Coming off the best Pretenders album since the ’80s, Chrissie Hynde resumes her side career with a fourth (or fifth, depending on where 2010’s Fidelity! credited to JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys lands) solo LP, Duets Special.
And true to solo form, the album, credited to Chrissie Hynde & Pals, features cover songs, as did 2019’s jazz standards set Valve Bone Woe and 2021’s self-explanatory Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan. The novelty of Duets Special is her pairing with her singer friends on the record’s 13 songs.
Relentless, from 2023, found Hynde reigniting the Pretenders’ spunky side, while not quite shying away from the softer, sentimental moments that have been part of her work from the start. Duets Special contains instances of both, with a lean toward the latter; that Hynde, emotional but understated throughout, remains so engaged to nostalgic love songs is revealing and contradictory to her reputation as a tough rock ‘n’ roll frontwoman who came of age at the end of punk’s golden era.
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And that, along with the fairly obvious track selection, makes this a minor outing in Hynde’s four-and-a-half-decade career. It’s a detour from an artist who’s been down this road before; her “I Got You Babe” cover with UB40 was No. 1 in the U.K. and a Top 30 hit in the U.S. in 1985. “Always on My Mind” (with Rufus Wainwright), the Beatles’ “It’s Only Love” (featuring Julian Lennon) and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (with the late Mark Lanegan) are familiar songs that were perfected years ago.
Better are Duets Special’s left turns: a gender-bending “Me & Mrs. Jones” with k.d. lang, Morrissey’s eulogic “First of the Gang to Die” featuring Cat Power and a cover of Cass McCombs’ moody “County Line” with Alan Sparhawk from Low, whose “Try to Sleep” is covered here with Debbie Harry. They pull Hynde and the album from the feeling that many of these tracks would be better served as B-sides or scattered among the guests’ own records. As a temporary aside until the next Pretenders LP, Duets Special warms up Hynde’s soulful, interpretive side.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
