When I think Pretenders, I have to admit that I think of the original line up. James Honeyman Scott, Pete Farndon, Martin Chambers and Chrissie. This cannot be that. This is the most American sounding record I think Ms Hynde has ever made. Think guitars with more Fender than Marshall.

For years I have thought Lucinda Williams listened to Chissie Hynde. I think the circle has turned. I get the impression that Chrissie has been listening to Lucinda. Chrissie Hynde has always been a self aware writer, but this is so present and clear eyed that is is surprising.

The songs sound like "the Pretenders" but with a more open feeling, air, space, dare I say they sound comfortable. Pedal Steel helps keep rootsy feeling and Jim Keltners drumming is always a great addition.

It might be that with Break Up the Concrete, Chrissie Hynde has found her own gravel road.

The performances are decent, and it's nice to hear Hynde sound like she's invested in her own material for a change, but the songwriting on this thing is just dreadful. The Pretenders have never lived up to the promise of their debut, and this record, though one of their best, is ultimately another disappointment, at least for me.

I haven't heard the new one (although the thought of Chrissie Hynde with pedal steel is intriguing), but I think you sell the band short, Josh. The debut album is undoubtedly great, as is the third one (Learning to Crawl, which finds Chrissie coming to grips with the death of two of the founding band members), and the second one is unjustly slighted. It's not great, but it's far from the crushing disappointment that it was portrayed to be at the time of its release. But that third one was released in, what, 1983, so it's been a long, irrelevant time, and every "comeback" I've heard has left me flat.

I have a soft spot for Chrissie, in any case. She gives a shoutout to my wife's hometown in one of her best-known songs. It's the "local girl makes good thousands of miles from home" theme. Which is the way that all the local boys and girls have to make good in the music world when they come from these here parts.

Went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said A, O, way to go Ohio

I'm beginning to understand your antipathy toward Rush Limbaugh.