Loose Screw [Enhanced]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
The Album features a Screensaver and Two Bonus Tracks which Are Not on the Us Version.

Tracks:

Lie To Me
Time
You Know Who Your Friends Are
Complex Person
Fools Must Die
Kinda Nice, I Like It
Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
I Should Of
Clean Up Woman
The Losing
Saving Grace
Walk Like A Panther

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Chrissie Hynde very rarely loses her cool, but on Loose Screw, the Pretenders' first studio album since 1999's Viva el Amour, she lets her anger and sense of betrayal rip, no doubt fueled by her recent break-up with her husband, Colombian sculptor Lucho Brieva. Hynde sinks her teeth into her material from the angular, anxious first cut, snarling her way through "Lie to Me," a play-by-play account of marital discord and emotional treachery. The CD is almost a song cycle centering around heartbreak, as Hynde moves on to self-recrimination ("Complex Person"), explicit pain ("I Should Of"), poetic sadness ("Nothing Breaks Like a Heart"), and revenge ("Fools Must Die"), showing more naked vulnerability than she has in her entire career. But before you get worried that this steely rock goddess is losing her edge, she emerges with teeth bared in a cover of Jarvis Cocker's sultry sexual challenge, "Walk Like a Panther." Seldom do you get to see an artist exorcise her pain in public with such poise and fearlessness. Pretender guitarist Adam Seymour cowrote most of the songs with Hynde, but that's not the only place where his talents lie. His subtle and understated guitar work is a perfect foil for Hynde. --Jaan Uhelszki

Album Description

Loose Screw is the first album from the Pretenders since 1999's Viva el Amor and the group's 8th studio effort overall. The band's line-up remains the same as it was for the recording of the Viva and Last of the Independents LPs.

Produced and mixed by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (Finley Quaye, Ziggy Marley, del Amitri), many of the songs on the album incorporate reggae-tinged rhythms, including the first single, "Complex Person". Hynde co-wrote all tracks on the album, except for the cover of "Walk Like A Panther" (a UK hit for DJ collective All Seeing I, co-written and originally sung by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker).

Album Description

The first album from the Pretenders since 1999's Viva el Amor and the group's 8th studio effort overall. Produced and mixed by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby (Finley Quaye, Ziggy Marley, Del Amitri), many of the songs on the album incorporate reggae-tinged rhythms, including the first single 'Complex Person'. Artemis Records. 2002.

Customer Reviews:

loose woman.......2006-05-16

This album failed to do anything in the UK as did the singles You Know Who Your Friends Are and The Losing but both songs are brilliant.In fact the only song that failed to make a mark on me was Complex Person it just doesnt work.

The rest of the album however is Hynde at her best.Loud,Proud and full of Passion that not many lead female singers can pull off anymore.pity it only made #55 in the UK.

Their best work since their debut album 20 years ago . . ........2005-03-28

The Pretender's first disc is one of the finest rock and roll albums ever made (and probably the first album to have "Play Loud!" written across the cover). After that startlingly raw and powerful debut, the band never managed to achieve a perfect, complete album again (no surprise). This CD -- over 20 years later -- is the closest Chrissie Hyndes & Co. has ever come. She is in full voice, with biting lyrics, and a snarling sensuality. Her ever-present anger lies just below the music's surface, while a reggae beat infuses most of everything else. These are probably the most accessible songs Hyndes has ever written.

Bonus: If we're lucky, someone will make a bio pic of the Pretenders/Chrissy Hyndes, and cast Gina Gershon in the lead.

Why are the Pretenders not revered like Neil Young???.......2004-12-14

Or U2, or The Stones, or the Who, or REM? Every one of the aforementioned bands releases and album or tours and the music press treats it as an earth-shattering event. Chrissie and co. make a great record like this (and their previous effort, Viva el Amor) and they fly seemingly underneath the radar.

This album is proof the Hynde and co. are still rocking fiercely and intelligently as they ever were. Easily, Loose Screw is their best since Learning to Crawl, lyrically and musically. Why Complex Person and I Should Have Known and Time weren't promoted to be the hits they should have been is beyond me. Chrissie is no dinosaur, and she has more bite and brilliance than Sheryl Crow, Alanis what's her name and that bone masquerading as a punk rocker (Avril Lavegne) will ever have.

Yet it seems this record languishes in near obscurity. God, I the hate popular music press. I am doubting U2's latest is half as good as Loose Screw. From what I've already heard, it's not.

Alas, Chrissie - who has more balls that 98% of rock stars - simply doesn't have balls and thus doesn't get the respect she deserves.

Maybe their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction will help change that. The Pretenders are still vital. Buy Loose Screw and you'll hear why.

"Kinda Nice, I Like It".......2004-08-03

This is a very strong Pretenders album that suffers from a few overt misfortunes: the sequence in which the songs unravel fails to really capture the strength of the album as a whole; the single, "Complex Person," is easily one of its weakest and least interesting songs (if the point was to pick a single that sounded most pretenders-like, man, did they miss the boat with THIS one!); and, lastly, the production further embellishes on the electronic tinge of Viva El Amor. This last problem is particularly lamentable, because it muffles rather than invigorates what had once been one of the bravest sounds in rock. The vague attempt at reggae comes through as nothing short of a catastrophe on the boring "Complex Person," while a techno backbeat only ruins what chances "Time" may have had at really engaging the listener. This latest effort starts off powerfully enough with the sizzling "Lie To Me," but that two of the album's failures were sequenced toward the very beginning sabotages what might have been an unusually consistent piece of work. The stunning "Walk like A Panther" is the last song on the album and is preceded by the bland "Saving Grace" and the useless "Clean Up Woman." The cluster of vintage rockers, "Fools Must Die" and "Kinda Nice" are followed up by the album's second disastrous nod to reggae, "Nothing Breaks Like A Heart." It is as though the pretenders were recording two albums at once: a gritty rocker that echoes the glories of "Ohio" or "Hurt You," and a weird, uninspired straining for commercial accessibility with so much misguided electronic production. Few would argue that the pretenders reputation is based on anything other than their ability to rock down the walls and then pour tears on the debris with a heart-stopper like "2,000 Miles." But here, Hyde & Co.'s increasing interest in electronic sounds and polish continues to compromise their power. Instant classics like "I Should Of" or "The Losing" demonstrate just how much authority this band would still command if they would only let the songs speak for themselves. What ultimately saves the album, though, is its lyrical vulnerability. These are some of the most revealing tracks Hyde has ever composed: "You thought you could leave/here with some teeth still in your head/But your friends on curtain row/would rather see you dead," Hyde croons on "You Know Who Your Friends Are." Hyde may not exactly be Christina Rossetti, but there is something about lines like "oh f@!K, I really miss you" that hits the nail on the head just as hard as the most marvelous sonnet. The music might be getting dull, but the song, thankfully, remains the same.

NOTHING SPICES UP A MARRIAGE LIKE BEING CHEATED ON.......2004-06-08

A lot of us have a soft spot in our hearts for Ms. Hynde. She came to the fore during the English Punk arrival during the late 1970's. While she had the attitude, she was a whole lot smarter and she made much better music than most during that "revenge against the dinosaurs" campaign. The Clash after all this time probably has only two or three songs people can remember. Chrissie could wipe their ass.

Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to have a lot going for her in the love department. Recently her marriage to a Colombian sculptor tanked. This CD is a chronicle of betrayal, anger, heartbreak, self-recrimination and finally hope. Easily half the songs here are simply wonderful. I have to take some points off because Ms. Hynde dips her toes in the reggae pond on at least five songs including the radio single "Complex Person". (I don't know why white English rock artists feel they are any good at reggae but they do. Nary a one of them is fit to tie the sandals on Bob Marley's feet.)

There isn't anything here equal to the majestic "Human" from VIVA EL AMOR; but to hear Chrissie swagger and growl on the sexy "Walk Like A Panther" is worth the price of this CD alone.