Customer Reviews

Get Close

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first Pretenders album that is clearly a Chrissie Hynde album rather than a group effort. It even shows on the cover, the first where she's alone on the front with the band on the back, even showing the hierarchy - the lone musician kept on from the Learning to Crawl sessions gets the biggest picture. Somewhere in the tradition between blue-eyed soul and white rappers, Chrissie tries to get funky, and pulls it off with mixed results. Except for the fact that she doesn't stick to a single musical style for the entire CD, this is a bit like the series of Neil Young albums where he tries playing with various genres for fun - it might be interesting to hear him try to be a soul man, but in the end that's not his strength, and you want to hear Harvest or one of the CD's with Crazy Horse.

My Baby is a nicely done soft love song not out of step with some of her earlier material. When I Change My Life is another gentle love song that's not as well-written. Light of the Moon is a poor attempt at funk with a musically dated sound. Dance! is an embarrassing attempt at a dance/protest song. There is some great material here, however. Tradition of Love is gorgeous in both melody and in the faux middle eastern singing style. Don't Get Me Wrong was the radio hit, a remarkably well-crafted pop song - Pretenders Lite. I heard enough of it in 1986 to last nearly a lifetime, but there's no denying it's a minor Chrissie classic. I Remember You is musically dated, has weak lyrics and I find the use of the synthesizer annoying, but this love song has a pretty melody. How Much Did You Get For Your Soul is bad in so many ways. Mind you, I'd be happy hearing Chrissie sing Sesame Street, but while some protest songs are timeless, this one is just old. A Sun City protest is a historical novelty now, and the funk doesn't work. Nor does hearing Chrissie Hynde chanting "who's got soul? super soul!"

Chill Factor, on the other hand, is a strikingly beautiful song in which Chrissie captures the 60's style soul sound perfectly. She gets it just right here - Otis Redding couldn't have done it better. Hymn to Her is a gorgeous song too, an anthem, and a great Chrissie Hynde song (if not a great Pretenders song). Room Full of Mirrors is a mediocre Hendrix cover. The Pretenders pulled it off extremely well live - next to Precious, it was the highlight of the set I heard on the Get Close tour - but the version here doesn't do the song justice.

Overall, this experiment with horns and synthesizers and funky bass isnt awful, and if you're in just the right mood, you may enjoy it. I do every few years, though I usually prefer the more typical Pretenders sound. I'm a bit surprised to read from a reviewer here that this is Chrissie's favorite album - perhaps that's the case, and she just gives the people what they want in concert, but I've never heard her cover more than a song or two from this album live. (To be fair, I haven't heard her in concert in several years). Even the Get Close tour, as I remember it, mostly featured material from Pretenders and Learning to Crawl. (Which would be smarter purchases than this CD if you don't have them). If you're a Pretenders collector and lack this album, you'll probably enjoy some of it. But, as others have written, be prepared to dislike some of it as well.

Get Close is one of those albums you put away for a while but keep coming back to. It's not the best Chrissy Hynde has released, but it's just ... average. The Pretenders are always evolving with different members coming aboard all the time. My favorite cuts are For Your Soul and the gorgeous Chill Factor. There is no doubt in my mind that Chrissy Hynde has one of the best voices in the music industry. Get Close showcases
a funky side that was missing in a lot of their earler (and better) releases. Not the best the Pretenders have put out, but not a bad release either. If you want to get funky some day, play Get Close !

From 1986, "Get Close" is one of the Pretender's most uneven album. Highlighted by sensational cuts such as "Don't Get Me Wrong," "Hymn to Her," "My Baby," "Chill Factor" and "When I Change My Life" rank with their best. Unfortunately "Dance," "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul" "Room Full Of Mirrors" etc. are little more than uninspired filler.

Thank goodness for programmable CD players. Some of the songs on this album among the best that Chrissie Hynde has ever done: "My Baby," "Hymn To Her," "Don't Get Me Wrong," for example.

On the other hand, to get to those gems, you'll have to put up with weak stuff like "Dance!," "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?," "I Remember You," and the misguided cover of Hendrix's "Room Full Of Mirrors." Not only does that Hendrix tune sound completely out of place next to the rest of the songs, it proves once again why Hendrix tunes are so hard to cover effectively: Hendrix's mastery of the electric guitar just can't be duplicated.

I get the distinct impression that 'Get Close' tries to be two albums at once. On one hand are the wistful love songs stamped all over with that distinctive Pretenders sound. On the other hand the album tries to explore funk territory, which leads one to believe that Chrissie should stick to what she knows best.

HYMN TO HER is a classic, pure and simple, in my opinion the best track thatChrissie has ever written. Lyrically and musically beautiful. TRADITION OF LOVE is a rousing euphoric rocker, and amazes me why this was never a single. MY BABY, WHEN I CHANGE MY LIFE and DONT GET ME WRONG all gorgeous Pretenders by numbers, altho the latter gets a little too close to being bubblegum, incredibly infectious though. I REMEMBER YOU flirts with reggae and is pleasant enough, altho the three 'funk' tracks, LIGHT OF THE MOON, DANCE and HOW MUCH DID YOU GET FOR YOUR SOUL leave much to be desired. 'How Much' is redeemed by witty bitchy lyrics, but 'Dance' is just plain awful. And altho ROOM FULL OF MIRRORS is okay, I get very uneasy when Jimmi Hendrex is covered. He puts magic into his songs no-one else can so covers will also sound, well inferior.

Be prepared to do alot of skipping on this album, there will be something you hate. Patchy musically and probably the weakest Pretenders albumlyrically (most of the tracks are basically glorified love songs)the good tracks more than redeem the situation.

The version of jimi Hendrix's Room full of mirrors is simply fantastic. I once saw them perform it live and really this is worth the price of the album alone. the rest is good but maybe not up to par to the first albums but still very good. It is otherwise more pop-oriented.

I can't let those bad review people trash a great album. Get Close, like all Pretenders albums, is one of the best in rock and roll. Chrissie Hynde will go in the record books as the best female rocker of all time.

This is much smoother music than Pretenders I or II, much more alone the lines of Learning to Crawl -- which I think is one of the top 10 albums in rock history. The style is great, the chords are a pleasure to listen to, and the beat is strong. Classic Pretenders.

This album deserves something between 3 and 4 stars. It has some very good songs but nothing spectacular. It is not the Pretenders best and it is not the worst. This is the Pretenders fourth full length album. (They had a number of EP's back in the day when that was the big thing). It is 47 minutes long (most of the Pretenders albums were long by LP standards) and has good sound quality.

This album reflects the sounds of 1986. In part the Pretenders were a leader, bringing punk to the masses and in part they were a follower. But, they were always at the leading edge. The Pretenders moved from punk to new wave to pop to funk to disco. By this time disco had taken in all forms of music.

There are some nice funk songs on this album. Dance is probably the closest the Pretenders ever came to a disco dance hit. And then there is How Did You Get So Much Soul.

The real highlight of the album is the final track, Jimi Hendrix's Room Full of Mirrors. I remember hearing this on my car radio and then rushing out to buy the CD. It actually isn't too much different from Hendrix's version, but still great.

There are some mediocre tracks on this album. As always the biggest hit, Don't Get Me Wrong, is the weakest track on the CD.

Before getting this CD, I would get the first 3 (Prentenders, II and Learning to Crawl) and then Last Of the Independents. The first album came out of nowhere, smashing you over the head with a punk, hard rock sound. This wasn't just a matter of an English group softening an American artform for mass consumption(which is done a lot in England-jazz, rock, blues, soul, rap, etc.). There was a real passion in the music. With the second album, the group refined and improved on the sound, and went in some new directions. With Learning To Crawl, the group moved to a rock/pop sound, but still kept that punk edge. It was a successful mix. After that, Hynde has been trying to find a sound, experimenting with all kinds music. Some successful, some not.

Length:: 1:09 Mins

Dealing with the disolving of a band can be a hard thing for anyone to deal with. Chrissie Hynde proved she was able to easily make some musical lemons and make some NICE tasty lemonade with the previous album Learning to Crawl. Interesting part of this is that only guitar player Robbie McIntosh is present from that album and all the remaining members of the original band are gone. As if the previous album hadn't said as much this album is definately Chrissie Hynde as a solo artist. The songs are mostly written by her pen alone and the musical ideas are clearly hers. For the most part this album is only a mildly more glossy retread of what was done on the previous album."My Baby","When I Change My Life","Tradition Of Love","I Remember You" and "Chill Factor" basically all showcase the same jangly rhythm guitar driven pop/rock (very heavy on the pop side,by the way) that made up the bulk of the previous albums. These are songs that are well produced,possess great poetic lyrics and have pretty strong hooks but all are pretty laid back and don't possess much edgy rock power. I would'nt call it soft rock but basically run-of-the-mill 80's pop/rock in terms of sound. Because Hynde possess a deep,soulful voice different yet in the same vein as Debbie Harry she felt that perhaps she sound try out a new direction for a sound and in this case it turned out to be funk. It the funk that this albums finds it's energy,not in rock and there are many die hard rock n roll fans that will likely diss this album from that very reason. "Light Of The Moon" actually does a really great job of fusing funk and rock together with a bluesy twist,a quality the two genres have in common and the underrated "Dance!" is a great,afro-beat style jam that is a total departure for The Pretenders and would not have been a bad direction for a whole album. Carlos Alomar and Bernie Worrell are guests on these songs and bring a great deal of their personalities to these songs. That personality is even more evident on "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul",an out and out call-and-response JB styled funk jam that carries an important message to the record industry of the time forcing black artists to "sell their souls" for big profit. As strange as this may seem this was actually THE funk message song period piece of the era and,probably because it was Chrissie Hynde doing it the message was likely seen as either exploitive and/or cretan.It wasn't. "Hymn To Her" is a beautifully poetic gospel/soul piece dedicated to all mother and mother type figures. A lot of people don't seem to care for the dancable techno-funk styled cover of Hendrix's "Room Full Of Mirrors". I was myself a little surprised at the direction taken with it but it really honors Hendrix that Hynde didn't xerox the original arrangement when she remade it as a lot of people would tend to do. A lot of people put down this album because of what it isn't. But there's a lot to like about it for what it is.