Chrissie Hynde - Valve Bone Woe

The Guardian 80

(BMG)
Hynde’s album of covers is inviting and interesting, thanks to her insouciant attitude

Chrissie Hynde has offered up various justifications for her latest record, a collection of jazz-facing covers of classic tracks. One is that she found belated inspiration in her 1994 duet with Frank Sinatra; another is a newfound desire to sing melodies – having recently observed their “decline” in popular music. Or, perhaps, she is simply following the winds of change: according to the Pretenders frontwoman, the “demise of rock” has prompted a jazz resurgence, and she wants in.