The Pretenders Release New Single "Love Buzz"
The Pretenders are still going strong and to prove it, they have just released their new single ‘The Buzz’. The jangly up-tempo tune will be featured on their upcoming album Hate for Sale which will be out on May 1 via BMG Records.
The song features Hynde’s signature laid back vocals flowing over the strummed chords, dramatic accented pauses and Pretenders-esque riffage in turn. Lyrically, the song compares love to an addiction with verses like:
“Can’t get no relief
You’ve reduced me to a liar
A liar and a thief
Love oh love
I can only prove you’re real
By the scratching and the fever
You know you can’t forget
You know you gotta get
The Buzz.”
Hynde had this to say about the song, “I think we all know that love affairs can take on the characteristics of a drug addiction. The Buzz is about that. Never mine, of course. I’m never obsessive, never obsessive, never obsessive.
Hate for Sale will be The Pretenders 11th studio release. It follows their Alone LP which came out in 2016. All songs were co-written by Hynde and her guitarist James Walbourne. The album was produced by legendary Blur producer Stephen Street.
This will be the first album to feature The Pretenders touring lineup of Hynde, Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and drummer and founding member Martin Chambers.
The track list for the album is as follows:
Hate for Sale
The Buzz
Lightning Man
Turf Accountant Daddy
You Can’t Hurt a Fool
I Didn’t Know When to Stop
Maybe Love is in NYC
Junkie Walk
Didn’t Want to Be This Lonely
Crying in Public
Hynde also shared her views on collaborating with Walbourne. “I’ve wanted to write with him since day one’” the singer says. “James is especially sought after and has recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Gahan and The Rails to name but a few. We always planned to write on the road but as anyone in a band will tell you, being on tour is a procrastinator’s dream come true.”
The Pretenders will be supporting the album on a North American tour with arena rock band Journey. The tour is scheduled to kick off on May 15 in Ridgefield, Washington and it will be wrapping up on Sept. 12 in Bethel, NY. The Pretenders will also be playing the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, CA on Sept. 27.
The Pretenders first formed in Akron, OH in 1978. Since then they have released such hits as Brass in Pocket, Middle of the Road, Back on the Chain Gang, I’ll Stand By You, Message of Love and Don’t Get Me Wrong. They were inducted in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
Hate for Sale promises to be a release that forges another link in the band’s legendary career.
