Additional personnel: Billy Bremner (guitar); Paul Carrack (piano, background vocals); Andrew Bodner (bass, background vocals); Tony Butler (bass).

Recorded at AIR Studios, London, England.

The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde, Robbie McIntosh (guitar); Malcolm Foster (bass guitar); Martin Chambers (drums).

Additional personnel: Billy Bremner (guitar); Paul Carrack (piano); Chris Thomas (keyboards); Andrew Bodnar, Pretty Tony (bass guitar).

Audio Remasterer: Dan Hersch.

Chrissie Hynde took a long, hard road to rock & roll stardom, but when her band, the Pretenders, finally broke through in 1979, they wasted no time, growing from promising newcomers on the British music scene to major international stardom with a pair of smash albums to their credit in a mere three years. But the Pretenders' meteoric rise came to a crashing halt in 1982, when drug abuse claimed the life of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and forced Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers to dump bassist Pete Farndon, who would also succumb to an OD in April 1983. Hynde was forced by circumstance to reinvent the Pretenders for their third album, 1984's Learning to Crawl, but if the new edition of the group lacked some of the spark of the band that made the first two LPs, through sheer force of will Hynde created a masterpiece. While Hynde hardly held back in her emotionally potent songwriting in the Pretenders' early work, on Learning to Crawl there's a gravity to her lyrics that blended with her tough but wiry melodic sense and streetwise intelligence to create a set of truly remarkable tunes. "Back on the Chain Gang" is a touching tribute to her fallen comrades that still sounds bitterly rueful, "Middle of the Road" is a furious rocker that explores the emotional and physical toll of a musician's life, "Time the Avenger" is a taut, literate examination of a businessman's adulterous relationship, "My City Was Gone" deals with the economic and cultural decay of the Midwest in a manner both pithy and genuinely heartfelt, and "2000 Miles" is a Christmas number that demonstrates Hynde can be warm without getting sappy. As a guitarist, Robbie McIntosh brought a simpler and more elemental style to the Pretenders than James Honeyman-Scott, but his tough, muscular leads fit these songs well, and bassist Malcolm Foster's solid punch fits Chambers' drumming perfectly. Three albums into her recording career, Chrissie Hynde found herself having to put the past to bed and carve out a new beginning for herself with Learning to Crawl, but she pulled it off with a striking mixture of courage, strength, and great rock & roll; with the exception of the instant-classic debut album, it's the Pretenders' finest work. ~ Mark Deming

At the beginning of the Pretenders LEARNING TO CRAWL Chrissie Hynde sings, "I'm not the kind I used to be, I've got a kid, I'm 33, baby!" The bravado in the way she delivered that line, however, couldn't disguise the fact that she was also dealing with the back-to-back drug overdoses of two of her founding bandmates (one an ex-lover). The resulting album, unsurprisingly, deals at least in part with pain and loss. ("Back on the Chain Gang" LEARNING TO CRAWL's first single, was in fact an explicit memorial).

Given the circumstances surrounding the making of the album, it's amazing that on balance it's the band's most rounded effort. This is due to Hynde's particularly strong songwriting, and a standout performance by new guitarist Robbie MacIntosh, who compliments Hynde's material adroitly. High points include "2000 Miles," probably the best rock Christmas song ever and the enormously exciting "Middle of the Road" (if you don't move when you hear it, consult your primary care provider). Also noteworthy are "Time the Avenger," (among other things, a witty homage to the Outsiders' 60s punker "Time Won't Let Me") and "My City Was Gone," a sad and beautiful tribute to her hometown (Akron, Ohio).