Packed! Never Do That Let's Make A Pact Millionaires May This Be Love No Guarantee When Will I See You Sense Of Purpose Downtown (Akron) How Do I Miss You Hold A Candle         To This Criminal credits releases reviews Sounds May 19, 1990 The Chrissie Hynde Story by Ron Rom Chrissie Hynde has suffered enough to warrant a TV adaptation of her life story: the Ohio punk queen whose dogged persistence in the face of adversity finally brought its rewards with commercial hits like "Back On The Chain Gang" and a new life in the mainstream. Packed would make a suitable soundtrack for the closing credits, since consistency runs through every song like wild weed, strangling the passion of everything it touches. Packed's features are soporifically familiar. Hynde's quavering, dry-roasted vocals wash over a clinical amalgamation of pop and sedate rock, superficially tough and resilient while hinting at deep-rooted insecurity. This long-established style works effectively on "How Do I Miss You," a reggae-tinged ballad that compares surprisingly well to "I Go To Sleep" and "Never Do That," and should provide another Pretenders hit. But even a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love" and a collaboration with rent-a-cred, Johnny Marr, can't inject an element of surprise. Hynde herself has become something of a Joan Jett/Dave Edmunds hybrid: a black leather rock 'n' roller for all seasons with a punk heart that's bared in the embarrassing lyrics of "Millionaires." It's sad that while on "Criminal" she proves to be as emotive and captivating as the new Queen Of Hearts, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Hynde generally seems more content here to run around in her reliable old mini (skirt? - Ed), getting from A to B with the minimum of fuss. It may be a bit out of place with modern pop mechanics but it won't disappoint those passengers who've been around the clock with her once already. Q June 1990 by Charles Shaar Murray Chrissie Hynde can certainly never be accused of flooding the market: barring a best of, Packed is only The Pretenders' fifth album in 12 years. During that time, The Pretenders have shifted from being a classic back-of-the-Transit four-piece rock band to a catch-all trade name which essentially means Chrissie-plus-whoever; these days, "whoever" includes drummer Blair Cunningham (who, it is safe to say, has transcended the stigma of being an ex-member of Haircut 100), guitarists Billy Bremner (a rockabilly wizard best-known for being the member of the Rockpile frontline who wasn't Dave Edmunds or Nick Lowe) and Dominic Miller, and bassist John McKenzie, plus producer Mitchell Froom (whose credits include Los Lobos, Richard Thompson and Maria McKee) on occasional keyboards. La Hynde herself — self-described former "midwestern hick and ex-cocktail waitress" — has weathered the storm of her initial notoriety and is justly acclaimed as both a formidable songwriter and one of the most soulful and distinctive white female voices around. Packed is both a celebration of her influences (Beatles, Hendrix, Motown, Dylan) and a validation of their — and her — continued relevance and power. Just as she did on 1986's Close, Hynde has included a Hendrix cover (May This Be Love: sweet) on Packed, and The Pretenders have recorded The Beatles' Not A Second Time (from their second album, 1963's With The Beatles) for a future B-side. The reconciliation of both these distinctive approaches to arranging guitar parts provides one of the keys to Packed, and Hynde's own increased vocal flexibility and growing fondness for vocal flourishes and embellishments derived from Indian and Arabic (rather than African-American) sources provides the other. Packed is loaded with '60s references, from those crisply jangling Beatly guitars which introduce the curtain-raiser, Never Do That, to the feedback shrieks over which Hynde proclaims "Bring on the ecstacy!" in No Guarantee, but the sensibility is as contemporary as that of any of the young bands currently exploring the same turf, and — despite Froom's sometimes overly liberal hand with the digital reverb — the sound is as big and punchy as any '80s-trained ear could desire. Packed is a tuneful, disquieting, tough, sentimental and thoroughly crunchy retro-nuevo rock album. It took The Pretenders until Close before they managed to create an album-as-album package in the same league as their debut. This is at least as impressive a piece of work as Close, and may well last considerable better. The vegetarian chili's on me. (Rating: 4 stars) Personics July 1990 The Pretenders are back with a new album, Packed! Face it, there are female rock singers, and then there is Chrissie Hynde. One listen to the new single, "Never Do That," will remind you that Hynde's the best. People July 2, 1990 by David Hildebrand Even the vibrato-rich ambrosia of Chrissie Hynde's voice can't make a modest collection such as this seem like much more than a tolerable album. Most of the songs are duds. Listen to the murky jerk of "Downtown (Akron)," the wraithlike reggae of "How Do I Miss You?" The failed country rock of "Millionaires" isn't helped by Hynde's keening punctuations — one of the few times her singing instincts have betrayed her. Covering "May This Be Love" evokes nice memories of the Jimi Hendrix original, but this watery version sheds no illumination on the song. That's not to say there aren't some fine songs here. The sleek pop of "Sense of Purpose," the guitar wrangle of "Let's Make a Pact" and the whipcrack rocker "No Guarantee" are worthy of the Pretenders' canon. Or take "When Will I See You?" which Hynde wrote with Johnny Marr. In other hands it would be hopelessly bland, but the spicy languor of Hynde's delivery makes it nearly exotic. That virtuosity is Packed's saving grace. As far as the material goes, Hynde tosses too many low cards on the table, but her voice trumps a lot of hands she has no business winning.