Concrete Brunette

Chrissie Hynde moved back to Akron to care for her aging parents and quite possibly begin her own retirement. But, like so many times in her career and life, fate intervened. She opened a vegan restaurant, reabsorbed the Midwest atmosphere that defined her upbringing and then, after a six-year gap since the last Pretenders album, songs began to suggest themselves. Finally there was an album’s worth, which yielded the consistently excellent 'Break Up the Concrete.' As is typical for Hynde, nothing about the swinging, stinging, swaying 'Concrete' is typical.