Hey Ho, Way To Go ... Pretenders

The Pretenders
Break Up the Concrete
Five Scoops of Bosco
Reviewed By Allen Bacon
Editor, The Daily Bosco

In a year that has already given us great return albums by rock and roll legends....folks like REM, B-52's, T-Bone Burnett, Walter Becker, and Sheryl Crowe...add another one for "The Year of the Comeback".

Break Up the Concrete is the ninth album by Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders...the first in six years... and is a return to the sound of the band from their start in the late 70's. The sound is raw and stripped down...rock and punk at it's very foundation. The recording was captured in just ten days adding to the honest sound.

The latest incarnation of the Pretenders is probably one of the best save for the original lineup. The only carry over from the last version of the Pretenders is guitarist Nick Wilkinson.

All the elements...why we have loved Hynde and her band for all this time are all there in this album. From the political in "Boots of Chinese Plastic" to the fun and the rockin' as in the title track (equipped with a very T-Bone Burnettish guitar rift by James Walbourne) to the love ballad and songs of heartbreak in "Last Ride".

Hynde is near the top of her game vocally here and has penned some of her best lyrics.

The songs on the album are being released through www.thepretenders.com (actually the very first official website for the band)..at a pace of one song a week as downloads until the complete set is done ending around the last week of September when the album hits the stores.