Album: Viva El Amor!
Year: 1999
. . .
Finally! After almost 15 years of not quite getting it right, the Pretenders were well and truly a band again — Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers now augmented by Adam Seymour on guitar and Andy Hobson on bass — and so they made their best album since Learning to Crawl.
The album, entitled Viva El Amor! after Sire balked at her original title, Biker, featured a number of strong performances, and their cover of the Divinyls “Human” even got some airplay. But by 1999, the guitar rock that Hynde specialized in was beginning to go out of vogue, something she addressed in the scathingly hilarious opening track, “Popstar.”
So your girlfriend wants to be a popstar
And beat the charts outta me
She wants to move a million units, man
Probably just to prove she can
And after a couple of hits
She’ll be buying a new pair of mitts
I can see just where she’s heading
She’s as predictable as Armageddon
Anchored by Chrissie strumming a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” rhythm guitar, over which Seymour lays a noisy, groaning rhythm guitar, “Popstar” might be about the girlfriend of ex-husband Jim Kerr — Patsy Kensit, for those of you keeping score at home — trying her hand at the pop game, but that seems too specific considering they’d been broken-up for over a decade. I think it’s more general than that, especially considering the chorus.
They don’t make ’em like they used to
No they don’t, they don’t make ’em like they used to
They don’t make ’em like they used to
You should have just stuck with me
With the guys singing in falsetto on the backing vocals, “Popstar” is a pretty hilarious song — with a pretty hilarious video, as well — and features a couple of scorching harmonica solos from Hynde to boot, while Seymour cranks up his guitar and plays Stonesy riffs throughout.
In the end, David Johansen shows up, for reasons, i guess? And he and Chrissie dialog back-and-forth as the guitars and harmonica rage all around them, still yelling at each other as “Popstar” fades into the night. And while the whole thing sounds great — Seymour’s guitar underneath the harmonica solos is thick and noisy — it just wasn’t what the charts were looking for in 1999. But for us Pretenders fans from the old days, it was pure manna from heaven: their best opening track — shit, their best track — since “Middle of The Road.”
And yet — and this is why Viva El Amor! is seen as a comeback — “Popstar” wasn’t even the best track on the album. That comes tomorrow.
“Popstar”
“Popstar” video
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