Pretenders I or Pretenders II

"Cuban Slide" as released on the EP Extended Play is apparently a 1st album outtake. Love that song; it should have been included on either of the albums.

 

Wow do I not agree with that. Birds of Paradise is my favorite ever Pretenders song, and the Adultress is in my opinion their best overall song. I agree the last 3 songs are weak though.

 

I'll have to listen to "Birds Of Paradise" again.
EDIT: Ah, that's a beautiful song! Forgot about it for some reason.

 

My take on II: Partially it commits the cardinal sin of trying to recapture the magic of the first one.
Hence, retreads like Adultress and Big Boys Get Spanked, with the sound/feel of the material on I
but not as good. .............. retreads. But happily, at least half the time, Chrissie has let the past be the past and has moved on, hence the fresh, evolved sound of Message Of Love, Talk Of The Town, and so forth. No, not a BIG BREAK WITH THE PAST, nor FORCED. Just a natural evolution. Nice. The
few retreads (in my opinion of course) of I, I simply skip. The remainder makes a Beach-Boys-size
album (or huge e.p. ) that is downright great. and a logical step on the way to III.

 

How is the Adultress a retread ? btw Bad Boys has the best ever guitar recreation of an orgasm at the end.

 

Agreed. They've been my favorite band since 1980. First is perfect. II has the four songs that close out side one and the two that close out side two. The rest - half the album - ranges from dull to embarrassing.

 

You're not a fan of "Day After Day"??

 

Some days "yes"; some days "no"...

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

It always seemed like a rough outline of a song. It falls in the dull category for me.

 

Hey, that's my take on it. If you love those cuts, that's just great. Me, I .... don't.

 

Pretenders I, for me.

 

Just what I was about to write. I'm with you 100%!

 

For some reason, I love the guitar work on 'Day After Day'. It isn't anything 'fancy', but there's something about it that I really dig. It's sort of signature 'James H-S'.

 

Couldn't agree more ..... One of my favorite songs to play on the guitar for that reason: just fantastic licks throughout. He was an incredibly talented and thoughtful player.

 

A must have for every true Pretenders fan

 

I followed by II and the EP.

It's not the same for me after Honeyman-Scott and Farndon died.......including Learning To Crawl.

 

not even worthy of a poll.....led zeppelin 2 or in through the out door?

 

I wouldn't go THAT far....

 

Pretenders II

 

"Walking Into Clarksdale"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

II was the first Pretenders record I owned and I love it. But the debut has more strong songs. Learning to Crawl is great as well but not as good as those first two. Those are magical records.

 

I agree. each time the song transitions back to the opening riff it's pretty awkward. It also sounds like they had trouble coming up with a good ending.

 

I is almost perfect.

i remember II being a huge letdown after I, because 'extended play" wasn't too bad and we were expecting a lot more form II