After 35 years with the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde wants to make you see that there's nobody else here like her, and that she's special – so special. Unfortunately, with all the fuss about Stockholm being the 62-year-old rocker's solo debut, the competently made but not crazily compelling disc sounds like yesterday, mostly.
You or No One is girl-group stuff right out of Phil Spector's playbook, while A Plan Too Far calls Tommy Tutone collect at 867-5309 for its rhythmic inspiration. Neil Young drops in for a grungy guitar cameo, but
elsewhere the disc sounds like a less-punchier Pretenders record.
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For someone finally stepping out on her own – though it's hard to say how much collaboration actually went on between the singer-songwriter and her long-time band – Hynde is not as adventurous as you might expect. She might want to take the brass out of her pocket, because it's weighing her down.