THE PRETENDERS ARE BACK WITH ALONE;  DAN AUERBACH-PRODUCED COLLECTION IS FIRST NEW PRETENDERS ALBUM IN MORE THAN HALF A DECADE.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH STEVIE NICKS BEGINS NEXT WEEK IN PHOENIX, AZ

 

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The Pretenders have announced today’s release of their acclaimed new album. ALONE (BMG) is available now on CD and LP, via digital retailers, and at all streaming services. ALONE – which includes the electrifying first single, “Holy Commotion” – was recorded with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Studio in Nashville and mixed by GRAMMY® Award winner Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson). The album has already received critical applause around the globe, with Rolling Stone hailing legendary bandleader Chrissie Hynde for “still mouthing off over brass-knuckled rock & roll, flexing command and carnality with no apology…her introspect is unsparing.”

“The best Pretenders album in years,” raved The Independent’s Andy Gill. “(Auerbach) captures Chrissie Hynde’s insouciant, flick-knife charm brilliantly on tracks like ‘Alone,’ the splashy, ramshackle blend of wiry guitar and rollicking piano bowling along as she celebrates being on her own, ‘prowling the streets with the poets and the creeps and the deadbeats’…The result is a fine album, subtly varied in both musical style and lyrical slant.”photo credit: Jill Furmanovsky

“ALONE revels in the kind of humanity that’s long made Hynde’s best work with the Pretenders tick,” wrote Consequence of Sound, “As long as she’s commanding the mic, the Pretenders’ stamp is indelibly made. The result is a record that sounds like the Pretenders, though also unlike anything the group’s done previously.”

“Auerbach, who produces the band’s first album since 2008, has added vintage rockabilly and soul touches to her formula,” noted New York’s Newsday, “but the centerpiece remains Hynde’s deep and mysterious voice and a stomping spirit that opens with a cymbal crash on the welcome introvert’s anthem ‘Alone Song’ and peaks with a heartfelt ‘woo-whee!’ in ‘Gotta Wait.'”

“Hynde’s wonderful voice, one of the rock’s best, can weaken knees even by reading a phonebook,” declared Associated Press. “While the album sports all kinds of modern-retro sounds, her vocals propel the fast ones and elevate the ballads with her usual empathy and authority.”

“Backed by a team of Nashville veterans, the rootsy sound is purposely unpolished and spontaneous, but the honey in the sawdust is Hynde’s instantly recognizable voice that hovers over every song like heady perfume,” raved Classic Rock. “The rich soil of classic Americana is a fine place for one of our greatest rock voices to find fresh inspiration.”

The Pretenders will celebrate ALONE with a much anticipated North American tour alongside Stevie Nicks, set to get underway next week, October 25th, at Phoenix, AZ’s Talking Stick Resort Arena and then travel through mid-December. In addition, the band has slated a number of headline appearances, including an eagerly awaited return to Hynde’s hometown of Akron, OH on November 26th (see itinerary below).For updates and ticket information, please visit www.thepretenders.com.

ALONE was initially conceived as follow-up to legendary bandleader Chrissie Hynde’s acclaimed 2014 solo debut, STOCKHOLM, but as its songs and sonic approach took shape, the collection soon revealed itself as the first all new Pretenders LP since 2008’s BREAK UP THE CONCRETE. The album sees Hynde backed by a team of what she proudly calls “real people playing real instruments,” helmed by the multi-talented Auerbach and featuring Nashville session luminaries including bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Sturgill Simpson), pedal steel pioneer Russ Pahl (Blake Shelton, Don Williams, Luke Bryan), and guitarist Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, Lana Del Rey, Ray LaMontagne), as well as keyboardist Leon Michels and drummer Richard Swift – both charter members of Auerbach’s adventurous garage rock combo The Arcs.

Hynde and Auerbach made for ideal foils, two idiosyncratic songwriter/musicians each possessing a deep knowledge and even deeper love of rock ‘n’ roll, both of course hailing from the City of Invention itself, Akron, Ohio. Though neither remain, Akron continues to inform both artists’ work, the Rubber City’s long history of progressivism and ingenuity, hard work and musical experimentation, are all very much present in their first full length collaboration.

ALONE indeed bears all the trademarks of The Pretenders’ legendary canon – raw and rollicking riffs, poignant balladry, taut hooks and indelible melodies, all in service of Hynde’s heartworn, ever-unsentimental songcraft. Nearly four decades on from The Pretenders’ epochal 1980 debut album, Hynde’s instantly identifiable voice is perhaps more emotional, more aggressive than at any other time in her career. That extra bit of edge only serves to add fire to new Pretenders classics like the brutally candid “I Hate Myself” and the defiant title track. Other highlights include “Roadie Man,” a softly sung paean to the hard working touring crew that has been kicking around Hynde’s unrecorded songbook for more than 25 years, the seductive “Let’s Get Lost” (co-written with songwriting superstars Amanda Ghost and Dave McCracken), and “Never Be Together,” featuring an inimitable contribution from legendary twang bar hero Duane Eddy.

ALONE marks Hynde’s first musical effort since her extraordinary 2015 memoir, RECKLESS: MY LIFE AS A PRETENDER, hailed by the New York Times upon its release as “honest and distinctive…first and foremost, a love letter to rock and roll.” “RECKLESS is more than a well-written, thoughtful memoir,” raved the Huffington Post. “It’s a cultural history of the rock scene in the 60s and early 70s, told by an astute observer who, perhaps unwittingly, reminds readers that improbable dreams can come true.” Hynde “(writes) with the sort of candor and humor rarely found in books by her male counterparts,” declared the Boston Globe, noting, “Bad girls sometimes finish first.” “(Hynde] writes just like she lives,” wrote the Daily Beast, “and just like she makes music. She does it her way, which is an inimitable multiplicity of things: impulsive, untamed, ragged, proud.”

THE PRETENDERS ON TOUR
All Dates w/Stevie Nicks Except * Headline Show

OCTOBER
25 – Phoenix AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
27 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
29 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
30 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
31 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits *

NOVEMBER
2 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena
4 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – BB&T Center
6 – Atlanta, GA – Phillips Arena
7 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
10 – Charlotte, NC – Time Warner Cable Arena
12 – Columbia, SC – Colonial Life Arena
13 – Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center *
14 – Washington, DC – Verizon Center
15 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
17 – Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Theater *
19 – Bethlehem, PA – Sands Bethlehem Event Center
20 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
23 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
25 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
26 – Akron, OH – EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall
27 – Detroit, MI – The Palace of Auburn Hills
29 – Toronto, ONT – Air Canada Centre
30 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Town Ballroom *

DECEMBER
1 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
3 – Chicago, IL – United Center
5 – Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena
6 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
9 – Vancouver, BC – Pepsi Live at Rogers Center
11 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena
12 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre *
13 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
14 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center
17 – Las Vegas, NV – Park Theatre
18 – Inglewood, CA – The Forum

Get Alone now: https://pretenders.lnk.to/AlonePR

 

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