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Jul 29, 2020Much of the liveliness of Hate for Sale is due to Street capturing the Pretenders as a straight-up rock & roll band, adding a little flair to the mix but being sure there's enough color and groove so it's not monochromatic. It helps that the songs are good, too.
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Jul 15, 2020These songs have the crackling energy and throbbing passion of the finest Pretenders music.
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Jul 13, 2020Hynde's fire is undimmed as she tackles love's drug-like addiction, tears up a roughshod storm on the rockers and delves into surf-guitar reggae on Lightning Man. [Jun 2020, p.88]
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Jul 15, 2020The ability to successfully engage with a number of different styles and tones, pen lyrics that are both incredibly vulnerable and smartly robust, and frame it all within their own unique zeal makes Hate for Sale a worthy and welcome addition into the band’s historic discography.
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Jul 20, 2020As certifiable members of rock royalty, the Pretenders hit all the right notes with this latest entry to their expansive catalogue. Hynde teases at the borders of the expected, without disrupting the core formula that has contributed to the band's longevity — unwaveringly authentic as ever.
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Jul 15, 2020Packed within these ten tracks is a solid and eclectic mix of genres, fresh sounds and vintage flair. Hate for Sale is the band’s strongest in a long while and should give any listener enough to gnaw on and then some.
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MojoJul 13, 2020Few Pretenders albums have honoured the classic line-up's template so faithfully or successfully as Hate For Sale. [Aug 2020, p.86]
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Jul 17, 2020Hate For Sale is surely one of the best albums this legendary band has produced, vivacious in a way that could even rival fan favourite Learning To Crawl.
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Jul 22, 2020Hynde responds to the drummer’s studio return not just by writing the band’s tightest rock record in ages but by thrusting the group’s interplay to the forefront. By doing so, she makes an effective case that the Pretenders are indeed a rock’n’roll band, not a singer-songwriter in disguise.
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Aug 18, 2020Yes, Hate for Sale is unbalanced. However, the Pretenders maintain an unapologetic devotion to the sound, which defined their success. Hate for Sale maintains a formidability that rejects compromise.
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Q MagazineJul 13, 2020With its bright shiny sonics buffed by Blur/Smiths producer Stephen Street, it ranks up there with the best of the early Pretenders albums. [Aug 2020, p.111]
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Rolling StoneJul 13, 2020The New Wave greats haven't sounded this raw and real since the early Eighties. [Jul 2020, p.87]
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Jul 16, 2020A few of the melodies fail to stick. ... But when Hynde reels out the rockabilly to target more deadbeats on “Junkie Walk” and “Didn’t Want to Be This Lonely” in the closing stretch, everything clicks.
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Jul 20, 2020There is chemistry here, making for tight songs that prance insouciantly from genre to genre, scattering wisdom and swagger in their wake.
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Jul 16, 2020From the full tilt title track, the echoing twang of The Buzz, the strutting rock reggae of Lightning Man, the swoonsome torch soul of You Can’t Hurt A Fool and swaggering rush of I Didn’t Know When to Stop, it is a Pretenders album that sounds like it could have been recorded in their first flush, a perfect blend of sensuous vocals and blazing guitars.
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UncutJul 13, 2020[Hate For Sale returns her] to the totemic sounds of the early Pretenders albums, trusted and familiar territories. [Aug 2020, p.31]