Chrissie Hynde has announced a new album of collabs under the name Chrissie Hynde & Pals.
As the name suggests, it’s a duets album, and sees the Pretender take on 13 covers with an array of intriguing names, including Debbie Harry, Dave Gahan, Cat Power, Shirley Manson, Brandon Flowers and the late Mark Lanegan.
The first single is a version of Always On My, Mind with Rufus Wainwright, which is out today. In a statement, Hynde explained that Wainwright had been the catalyst for the whole project.
“I never thought about doing a Duets album before. I think the idea came about in 2023. I was talking to Jörn, Rufus Wainwright’s husband, on the phone. I think we were recommending novels to each other and for some reason I said hey, maybe Rufus and I should do something, and quickly scribbled out 10 songs off the top of my head. So Jörn asked Rufus, who was up for it, and that’s how it started. A spontaneous and what I thought would be a fun thing.”
The 73-year-old singer is no novice when it comes to duets. Indeed decades before the appendage ‘featuring’ became a common sight on singles, she had a UK Number One with one when she guested on UB40’s version of I Got You Babe in 1985.
Other intriguing-looking tracks on the album include Me & Mrs Jones with K D Lang, and Hynde and Julian Lennon taking on It’s Only Love. The latter is surely the song from the Beatles’ Help! album written by... Julian’s dad, of course.
Anyway, she’s calling the album Duets Special and it’s out via Parlophone on October 17.
While she’s been prepping the new album, Hynde (along with Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne) has also been to one of the Oasis shows and took to Instagram to voice her approval: “James and I went with Johnny Marr to see Oasis the other week. They were great as one would expect. Saw a bunch of old pals in the audience and was dancing with Kate Moss to support act, the excellent voiced Richard Ashcroft”.
She continued: “Oasis were in great form…. There is still nothing better than a rock band doing their thing with a minimal light show and no extra people cluttering the stage. In other words, a proper f***ing rock band! Exactly what the world needs now.”
