"Loose Screw" (2003) is the forgotten Pretenders album. Forgotten not by fans but by the band, and its management, it seems. It's the only Pretenders album not available on Spotify and the only Pretenders album with no vinyl release. A strange happenstance as "Loose Screw" is the end of an era for that version of the Pretenders. It would be the last album for both bassist Andy Hobson and guitarist Adam Seymour, both of whom had been with the band since 1994.
It is strangely such a product of its time, but also, its songs are so very much unique and of their own accord. If 1994's "Last of the Independents," 1999's "Viva El Amor" and 2003's "Loose Screw" are a trilogy of sorts, then "Loose Screw" is the boldest of the three.
Firstly, the band at the time consisted of singer, songwriter, and composer Chrissie Hynde, Lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Adam Seymour, Drummer Martin Chambers, and Bassist Andy Hobson (though credits for the album reveal Chambers and Hobson are spotty contributors with only Hynde and Seymour playing on every track). The four reunite after "Viva El Amor" again for the album and subsequent tour.
Seymour's writing duties make him the most prolific Pretenders writer outside of Hynde at the time, which seemed to solidify him as a staple of the Pretenders, and his nearly ten-year reign as constant guitarist also made him the longest-running Pretenders guitarist ever (at the time). I'm not sure many would see his ousting come with the release of this record. His contributions are solid, and truly, his sound is the closest sounding to original Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott whilst keeping the band current.
Seymour would remain with the band for nearly half a decade after the album's release. Joining Hynde and Co. for the "Pirate Radio" tour, which promoted the band's Box set release, which included songs from every corner of their then 40+ years of music. Making contributions to a few one-off releases.
The next immediate thing about the album is its sound. While the next album would take on a grassy Americana sound, "Loose Screw" embraces a more reggae-influenced sound. The band not being strangers to reggae. Their first and second albums would include "Private Life" and "Waste Not, Want Not," respectively, and 1990s packed would include the dramatically under-appreciated "How Do I Miss You?" however, no album has or would contain more reggae influence than "Loose Screw"
The album opens with "Lie To Me," a traditional rocker that breaks down the door and lets you know who the band is. A gritty tune that has Hynde open with: "That's not honest/nothing you've said./Why don't you tell someone/who'd believe you instead?" her voice as timeless as always, both able to pull off a tenderness and a biting indictment all whilst keeping a melodic pull that makes these songs so singable.
"Time" follows and is a better representation of what the rest of the album will be. A pop/reggae mash-up that has Hynde cooing "Give me some time/real good time/give me some time/Time" over some luscious chords that make you ready to dance and just enjoy the ride. Is it the typical rock song we've come to expect from the band? No, surely it isn't, but this album is full of that. Proof that The Pretenders were never one thing; they were always good at it all when they wanted to be, and Hynde, in particular, isn't a one-trick pony but rather a virtuoso who never gave herself the credit and the boasting she deserves.
"You Know Who You Friends Are" is the song that Hynde touted the most from this album. A strongly written lyric over a dub/reggae beat. "This one for the junkies," she would shout before the song's opening at concerts. A topic that has imprinted itself on her life, losing Pete Farndon to the Junkie life back in the 80's. The song has Hynde deliver a strong vocal that warns in earnest, "Know who your friends are/they're the ones who want to see you go for/you know who your friends are." Adam Seymour cannot be understated here either, his guitar work and writing with Hynde always seemed to bring out the best in her. It all fits, these versions of these songs that are co-written by Seymour feel like the ultimate versions of those songs. Perfectly crafted, yes guitarist will come later and play them, but always extremely closely to Seymour's original because it is hard to expound upon the right fit.
"Complex Person" sees Hynde in a pseudo rap under a reggae beat, and again, it's her lyrics that are pointed at herself that make these songs so special. She pontificates and scats about being a hypocrite and a complex person. "I refuse to keep a gun in my purse/imagine if I were feeling perverse/ the builders and the workers when they whistle and they shout/I'd like to give them something to shout at me about/Ohh!" Hynde raps with such convincing authority that it's both funny and a seemingly real threat. Always undeniably funny in her own way, her turn of phrase never misses its intended meaning.
"Fools Must Die" is a guitar-heavy romp. Again, Hynde's confidence blasts forward like a locomotive over a simple guitar lick. "Spooky" guitars (As Adam Seymour calls them) underneath play up the imagery of death. "Everybody gather round/watch them stumble to the ground" is a sympathetic but also mocking announcement.
"Kinda Nice, I Like It" is titled from Hynde's initial reaction to the song when Adam Seymour showed it off to her. The kind of song one can imagine playing on a jukebox in a dimly lit, smokey pool hall. Fun and dark, lyrically clever ("Oh but I can leave at any time/but I'd miss the oh so absurd and so sublime"), and musically easy to tap your foot to. It's a kind of cool that doesn't come to artists too easily. Hynde's voice drips the lyrics almost in a half-drunken state of conflict. "Everything about us looks wrong/but I swear it feels nice," she croons in the chorus, dramatic horns and guitar flare in the background. It's a vibe, as the kids say.
"Nothing Breaks Like A Heart" is Hynde's vocal best for this album. Painstakingly tender as she cries out, "At first I celebrated/this footloose fancy-free stuffs overrated/I got my way/now I'm free to roam," all with the strongest insistence of regret in her voice it's a wonder that Hynde didn't become an actor at some point. She certainly can paint a picture through emotions alone, even ones of conflicting nature.
The song would be re-recorded by the next iteration of the band as a bonus song for a special release of "Break Up the Concrete" with a country twist to it, but nothing can really touch the original. The reggae affectations are perfectly intertwined with the lyrics, and Hynde's vocal performance just goes above and beyond.
"I Should Of" sounds like a holdover from the previous album "Viva El Amor," a great (and again under-appreciated) song that has Hynde and Seymour pulling out some great turn of phrases across a landscape of music that flows so exquisitely, supported by the Duke String Quartet (who played on the band's live, unplugged album "The Isle Of View")
If on the album before or the after, two things would happen. The first: The song wouldn't be as perfectly matched so its sound and it would be more known. The real tragedy of "Loose Screw" is that so many songs are forgotten because of its inability to be found online.
"Clean Up Woman" returns us to the reggae sound and is a fantastic groovy song. Perhaps the best lyrically on the album, but it makes up for it with brilliant vocals and dance-worthy guitar fills. Another song that fans of the band may forget exists. It's the band in another realm, it's sexy, it's fun, it's cool, and it's a shame that it's virtually impossible to listen to online.
"The Losing" could be described as this album's attempt at "I'll Stand By You," but it's simply too good to be that. "I'll Stand By You" reaches a larger audience because it's so accessible "The Losing" has the same feel but is filled with lyrics like "A bluff's about as good/as the gettin' will get/see in this neighborhood/we're all in debt" and because that's such a tricky lyric that requires thought it could never be the top of the charts behemoth that "I'll Stand By You" was.
"Saving Grace" is a stripped-down, paired-back song that delivers Hynde her singer/songwriter song. High notes and all the song is, perhaps, not top five on the album, but in no way a bad song. Much like this album, it's fantastic and somehow destined to be overlooked.
The album ends with the standard Pretenders cover. This time of the and the All Seeing I's (with Tony Christie) haughty tune: "Walk Like A Panther." This is one of the only Pretenders covers that I prefer the original over. The Pretenders version is cool and sly like the rest of "Loose Screw" but I enjoy the whimsy of the original (dance moves and all) though it should be said that the line "Your hometown just looks the same/like a derelict man whose died out of shame/like a jumbo sale left out in the rain/it's not good/it's not right" feels like it was meant to perfectly escape Hynde's lips with a natural mix of humor and malice.
"Loose Screw" is an album that frustrates me because it is SO GOOD. One of my bigger issues with the Pretenders' later album "Alone" is that it didn't commit to the sound of its first single, "Holy Commotion," throughout the album. It could have been a pop album of wonder songs that are Pretenders but not quite Pretenders but "Loose Screw" does do this. It is identifiably and undeniably Pretenders but also so different from what came before, a product of its time, its reggae/pop influences feel more genuine than "Break Up The Concrete"'s Americana sound.
"Loose Screw" sounds like a band having a good time and exploring modern sounds with their classic style, and that it all works rather well is just icing on the cake. Its only real flaw is that perhaps we were not ready for that quite yet and that it is locked away in the basement of the internet.
Here's to hoping a wider (and vinyl) release comes one day, but until then, travel back to the 2000s and, throw that CD into the CD player and groove away.
editor's note: "Loose Screw" is available on most streaming service in Europe however in the U.S. it's only available on Apple Music and Spotify only has the singles available.
My Verdict: 8.2/10
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