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.

Rolling Stone (p.78) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he best Pretenders record in years, a mix of galloping rockabilly and country & western songs, delivered in Hynde's trademark snarl..."

Entertainment Weekly (p.71) - "[W]ith her velvet-sandpaper vocals and unflappable rock-chick cool, Hynde is more than enough to build an album around....She cuts loose with an effortlessness it takes years to cultivate..." -- Grade: B

Blender (Magazine) (p.76) - "The Pretenders' ninth studio album is a pleasant roots record....Hynde sings about May-September romance and the search for the paved-over soul of her busted hometown, Akron, Ohio..."

Paste (magazine) (p.57) - "Hynde's voice is as recognizable as ever -- all slow vibrato, unrestrained high notes and staccato alto..."