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.