"Too old to know better/ too young for her age," Chrissie Hynde sings, flashing by a mirror in the slow soul music sway of "You Can't Hurt a Fool" from Hate For Sale. There's much truth in the notion that since the deaths of original guitarist Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott who OD'd less than a year apart between 1982-83, The Pretenders have been a Hynde solo project with varying degrees of success. The band’s last record, 2016's Alone, produced by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, and featuring the musicians from his band The Arcs emphasized that point. Now under the steady hand of producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Cranberries, Blur), Hynde and her touring band of 15 years have hatched an album that will especially resonate with fans of the band's early work. With original drummer Martin Chambers aboard, this also feels and sounds like the first true "band" album in a very long time—a throwback move where Hynde, still in good voice, again sounds emotionally engaged. Energized by a solid batch of co-writes between Hynde and touring guitarist James Walbourne, Hate for Sale opens with the snarling title track that both savages an ex-lover, and according to Hynde, serves as a tribute to punk outfit The Damned, whose members she once jammed with just before they became a band. Single "The Buzz," an immediately recognizable return to a vintage Pretenders sound, has changes and rhythms similar to "Kid" from the band's 1980 eponymous debut album. The reasonably credible reggae of "Lightning Man" is another tribute, this time to Richard Swift, a chief mover behind Alone. And a revved up rockabillyized Bo Diddley beat gives "Didn't Want to Be This Lonely" a spirited snap. Forty years on, Chrissie's back with the band. © Robert Baird/Qobuz