The Pretenders: “977” (WEA)

‘977’ continues the anthemic style of ‘Stand By You’ though, arguably, it’s an unsuitable idiom for an exploration of the confused feelings of women who get battered by their male partners and still end up loving the perpetrators of such violence towards them. Chrissie Hynde sums up these paradoxical emotions when she recounts how the victim of the abuse declares that she knows her man loves her when he cries over the beating he’s given her. A scathing underlying scorn belies the record’s deceptively upbeat appearance. Who said rock music can’t be a vehicle for serious topics?