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All Music Guide

It just feels like a lively, deeply felt Pretenders album, one that has better songs and better performances than usual.

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Paste Magazine

Staunch admirers of the traditional Pretenders sound might not like this record, but I say, “Yee-haw!”

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Mojo

This record is looser and more organic, and a different sonic palette for Hynde. [Jul 2009, p.106]

Q Magazine

It's Hynde who steals the show with her lip-curling vibrato, part Elvis, part Dusty, never more intoxicating than on the seductive 'Almost Perfect.' [Jul 2009, p.129]

Billboard

The blues- and country-influenced songs on Break Up the Concrete are an engaging departure from the group's earlier hits, while Hynde's dynamic alto voice gives the set the unmistakable Pretenders identity.

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Rolling Stone

The result is the best Pretenders record in years, a mix of galloping rockabilly and country & western songs, delivered in Hynde's trademark snarl.

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Entertainment Weekly

Fortunately, with her velvet-sandpaper vocals and unflappable rock-chick cool, Hynde is more than enough to build an album around.

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Spin

Along with four new Pretenders, she's crafted a statement that's stripped bare and dangerous, just like Hynde herself, who abandons much of her haughty cool to expose some long-concealed wounds as painful as the ones that Janis Joplin unfurled on "Pearl."

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PopMatters

Working with a new band of co-conspirators, Hynde’s subversively hard-core Concrete serves up just enough old Pretenders swing to lure back fans confused by 2002’s relatively lackluster "Loose Screw."

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Blender

The Pretenders’ ninth studio album is a pleasant roots record.

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Hartford Courant

Many of Hynde's new songs call for honesty and compassion, and even if she never quite finds those things, her search yields some pretty vital rock 'n' roll.

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Boston Globe

Her ninth studio album, recorded in just two weeks with an entirely new crew of Pretenders, just might be her most congenial, and certainly rootsiest, collection yet.

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New York Magazine

Though the album can’t really stand with the Pretenders first three, it approximates them pretty well, like a faux vintage T-shirt that’s faded just right.

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Pitchfork

Break Up the Concrete seems a bit uneven: The faster numbers begin to sound the same after a while, and the album hits a slight lull halfway through.

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Under The Radar

A few throwaway tunes, but probably the best Pretenders album since "Get Close." [Winter 2008]

Observer Music Monthly

It's Chrissie Hynde reinvestigating her roots with some rockabilly and a Dylan vibe.

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Uncut

A bargin it might be, but the triumphs of yore tend to expose the new album's low-fi rockabilly and country strums. [Jul 2009, p.95]

Austin Chronicle

Why not take the five really good tracks on Break Up the Concrete ("Boots of Chinese Plastic," "Love's a Mystery," "Rosalee," "One Thing Never Changed," "Don't Cut Your Hair") and offer a stellar EP for download?

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

T S gave it a9:
I was a fan of the Pretenders in the past and am currently a big fan of alt-country so this works out perfectly. All the better for being so unexpected. Chrissie Hynde slips into Roots Rock/Americana like slipping into an comfortable old shoe. Strong songs, impeccably executed. I listen to this CD now at least once a day and am recommending it to all my friends.

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Break Up The Concrete

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