Reviews:

The first Pretenders album after the longest recording layoff in the band's history (six years), BREAK UP THE CONCRETE finds Chrissie Hynde re-energized, fronting a new bunch of musicians on a fresh, arresting batch of new songs released on a new label. Original drummer Martin Chambers, still part of the touring outfit, is replaced here by session-drummer king Jim Keltner. Perhaps even more significantly, new arrival Eric Heywood (pedal steel) boasts a lengthy Americana resume (Son Volt, Jayhawks, Ray LaMontagne) and brings with him the highest quotient of rootsiness ever to occupy a Pretenders album.
While there are some driving rockers that recall the glory days of "Precious" and "Tattooed Love Boys," with Keltner employing ingeniously mutated New Orleans-cum-Bo Diddley beats, a striking number of tracks here roam a more roots-rock-oriented area. Warm, organic acoustic-guitar strumming and long, keening pedal steel lines frame Hynde's one-of-a-kind voice on the slow-burning country-soul waltz "Don't Lose Faith in Me," the rather Lucinda Williams-esque "Love's a Mystery," and other smartly conceived tunes, balancing out an album that's simultaneously earthy and urgent.
Break Up the Concrete is the first Pretenders album since 1990s Packed! where Chrissie Hynde wrote almost every song on the album on her own, but unlike the generally listless Packed!, Break Up the Concrete is an effective rebirth for Hynde, a reconnection to her roots undoubtedly effected by her return to her native Ohio. This may be a stripped-down record carrying echoes of the Pretenders past, but this is hardly a conscious re-creation of the group's first two records, as it lacks any of the stylish guitar colorings of James Honeyman-Scott, and the group's early hard rock swagger has been swapped out for a frenetic rockabilly bop, as infectious on the barrel-headed boogie "Don't Cut Your Hair" and Bo Diddley romp of the title track as it is on the ingenious Dylan send-up "Boots of Chinese Plastic." Hynde's revived rockabilly roll finds a comfortable pairing in the easy county-rock vibe of her ballads, of which there are far more of than there are rockers here. This emphasis on rockabilly and country-rock gives Break Up the Concrete a bit of an Americana feel -- something enhanced by the gently murmuring accordion on "You Didn't Have To," which otherwise is a cousin to the sighing pop of "Kid" -- but this doesn't necessarily feel like a departure for Hynde: it just feels like a lively, deeply felt Pretenders album, one that has better songs and better performances than usual. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine