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THE PRETENDERS Viva El Amor! (Warner Brothers) It's a gritty, riff driven rock’ n' roll album from the Diva of rock, Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. Chock full of jangley guitars and memorable melodies. There's a great live feeling to this collection of recordings, keeping a balance between pop/ rock tunes and ballads. Check out the catchy 'From the Heart Down' a pretty love song. Buffeting the more riffy tunes like 'Popstar' the album opener and my favourite, 'Legalise Me'. Another memorable moment is the Spanish sounding 'Rabo De Nube' a gentle ballad which for me paints romantic pictures of summer beaches and sunsets. Of course the lyrics, when translated may not at all resemble the image this song conjures for me. 'One More Time' is a cool sixties soul styled song that's worth a listen. Chrissie Hynde's vocals are as confident as ever while the lyric content deals with the usual conflict of relationships and domestic strife, topics with which we've become familiar on previous Pretenders albums. Guitarist Jeff Beck makes an appearance on this record, while Stephen Hague and Stephen Street divide up the production duties. It's remarkable that after so many years of making records The Pretenders can still pull out an album as constant as anything they've done in the past, with the exception, perhaps, of Pretenders 1. It has the same grit and determination as say, their Learning to Crawl, or Get Close albums. It's a lot better than some new albums by some old rock bands I could mention. Micheil Reid mrgalaxy@free.net.nz Click on album image to see larger album cover 
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