The Pretender [LP]

Jackson Browne - The Pretender [LP]

50 years since its original release in 1976, Jackson Browne’s acclaimed album The Pretender is being reissued by Inside Recordings. Available on CD and 180-gram LP, the album has been remastered and is presented in a top-quality, faithful reproduction of its original packaging, overseen by Jackson Browne. The digital remastered audio is licensed from Inside Recordings to Rhino Records in a partnered release. "The most striking songs on The Pretender are concerned with death and parenthood, subjects not necessarily unrelated. Often, his apocalyptic imagery is merely a way of getting at his feelings of mortality-the crumbling towers of Babylon in 'The Fuse' are as much about the inevitable erosion of time as anything else. And parenthood is seen as a symbol of the middle-class life he has experienced: it's both a joy and a trap. In 'Daddy's Tune,' he reaches out to his father, long ago alienated, in order to share with him the turmoil of advising his son in 'The Only Child.' In a way, this is his ultimate dilemma - to be a father, or to be a son. And his ultimate triumph is to realize and reconcile the parent and the child in each of us. 'The Pretender' is a breakthrough. Browne has always had traces of cynicism in his writing, but about romance he has remained firm. Love can make a difference, all of his songs say. But 'The Pretender' is a song about why even that won't work, in the long run. In its most shattering moment, the hero imagines what he and his dream-lover will do, if ever they manage to meet." - Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1976