return to menu of Pretenders articlesChrissie Hynde still sounds better in the heat of amplified sexual argument. But it's no hard thing falling into the crushed-velvet caress of "The Isle of View," an acoustic holiday with strings that make up for its lack of fanged twang with that butterfly flutter in her voice and the emotional bravado of deceptively soft songs like "Chill Factor." The record stumbles when she tries to revisit rough diamonds like "The Phone Call" with a lighter touch; "Private Life" in contrast, is a black beauty, Hynde's whispered tigress bite heightened by the understatement.
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