Cheap Packed! (Music) (The Pretenders) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Packed!

This was a transitional album for Chrissie Hynde. The original lineup that created the legendary debut album had long since splintered given that half of it had died within 2-3 years of its release and the departure of drummer Martin Chambers on the band's previous album "Get Close." "Packed" relied on a virtual revolving door of a line up on its songs and as a result the album come across more as a Hynde solo album on which she relies on various session musicians. The result is a meandering and unfocused work.

This is not to say, however, that all is a total loss as the album contains two undeniable gems in "Never Do That" which kicks of the album and "Sense of Purpose" which comes later on. Both are exquisite examples of Hynde's song writing abilities and are very ably served by her production with Mitchell Froom. As songs, they rank right up there in the cannon of Pretenders classics and deserve to be heard (although one could make a very strong case that the version of "Sense of Purpose" that apers on the live "Isle of View" album is superior to this studio take).

The rest of "Packed," however leaves a good deal to be desired. It is neither objectionable material nor remarkable. It almost comes across as the work of a competent, but not particularly inspired Pretenders cover band.

Two and a half stars.

Their absolute BEST cd
And their MOST underappreciated cd as well! I can say, without equivication, that "Never Do That," is a PERFECT pop confection (with a poisonous center)! The tune, the length, the production, the off-center sentiment ("take my mouth as far as you can see, it stretches farther than I care to think") all combine into a rock-pop masterpiece. Chrissie GETS IT. She crafts some of the best rock-n-roll of her then, 10-year career here, like "Sense of Purpose" and "Let's Make a Pact." And what would a Pretenders disc be without Chrissie's twisted concept of a rock "ballad"? Thus, why "Criminal" is a classic.

Packed with good songs
After a drastic change in style on the 1986 "Get Close", 1990's "Packed" marked a return to the classic Pretenders sound. This isn't a must-have CD, but it's arguably the best of the Pretenders lot after what most would consider the two essentials: "Pretenders" and "Learning to Crawl". It doesn't rock quite as hard as the earlier albums, even when it tries, and the original band is completely gone, but there isn't a bad song here.

There are 3 periods to Chrissie Hynde's work, each producing 3 full-length albums. In the first, a youthful band rocks incredibly well, recording classics: "Pretenders", "Pretenders II", and "Learning to Crawl". The second sounds like a bit of a mid-life crisis as an ever-changing band tries with mixed success to explore new sounds ("Get Close") or to recapture the Pretenders' fading youth ("Packed" and "Last of the Independents"). Finally, there's a phase that finds dignity in maturity, first giving up the attempt to rock like 30-year-olds by unplugging ("Isle of View"), then recording two solid albums with no pretense of recapturing the glory of youth ("Viva El Amor" and "Loose Screw"). If you're not a die-hard fan, that first period may be all you care about. If you are, then there are some diamonds worth looking for in that rough middle period, and "Packed" contains most of them. It is by far the most consistent CD from that time, and I can only guess at why it's not even been rated here previously. Perhaps it's just that it didn't include radio hits like "Don't Get Me Wrong" or "Night in My Veins".

The CD opens with "Never Do That", a love/hate song featuring a self-plagiarizing reincarnation of the "Back on the Chain Gang" sound. It includes clever use of guitar effects, something characteristic of the early Pretenders, and equally clever lyrics. "Let's Make a Pact" is, for Chrissie Hynde then and now, an uncharacteristically hopeful and touching love song. Though not musically memorable, it is lyrically so, even with an overly-cute word play on altar and alter. The CD contains several songs in which she expresses painful vulnerability with regard to her love life, this being the first. "Millionaires" is a fun and forgettable rocker. Though it's an enjoyable song with interesting guitar effects at the bridge, there's something vaguely disconcerting about a millionaire singing as if millionaires are the enemy, however tongue-in-cheek. Still, it was good to hear Chrissie rocking again in a way she hadn't since the early 80s. The cover of Hendrix's "May This Be Love" adds nothing to the original, but is more successful than her version of "Room Full of Mirrors" on "Get Close".

"No Guarantee" tries to rock in the style of the first Pretenders album, as do several songs on this CD, and it gets close, though it fails to fully live up to that early sound. "When Will I See You" is a magnificently-performed, wistful, jangly-guitared love song, and is the first of several songs here that include the pleasures of summer as part of their theme. "Sense of Purpose" may be the best song on the album. Like "Let's Make a Pact", it seems to makes noises about wanting to be made whole by a man, but it also has the swagger of the singer knowing she's a woman in her prime, and it exudes the mature confidence of someone I'm guessing was about 40 at the time. This song rocks gently but powerfully, and the lyrics are sublime. There is genuine passion here, without any misguided attempts to recapture the energy of "Precious". "Downtown" is another really fun song that does try to capture the sound and fury of the first Pretenders album with good if incomplete success, while "How Do I Miss You" is reminiscent of the slow reggae-tinged songs on that album; it has aged well.

"Hold a Candle to This" is another rocker that aims for that original tough Pretenders sound. I think Chrissie does better with venomous lyrics about relationships than about animal liberation. But it's quite possible that her singing here doesn't sound quite as passionate to me as it might simply because I lack the strength of her conviction that eating meat is evil. Maybe I'm just projecting my own lack of passion on the subject. "Criminal" closes the CD with a slowly rocking ballad in which the vocals, if not the lyrics, are sophisticated. This is another of the "when can I see you" songs on the CD in which Chrissie openly expresses painfully pathetic vulnerability - it comes across as quite heartfelt.

This CD was a mixed blessing to a Pretenders fan 13 years ago, and remains so. On the one hand, we got back some of that original passionate rock sound from her early years, something that had been sorely missed. Yet Chrissie couldn't pull it off quite as well as 10 years earlier, leaving a bit of a sense of loss mingled with pleasure at the at-least-partial return of a very special sound. With the perspective of a decade having passed, perhaps what's most important is that these are all good songs, several of them truly excellent, rather than disappointment that 40 year olds don't have quite as much energy as 30 year olds.