*** The Pretenders

VIVA EL AMOR

(Warner Bros.)

It's been more than five years since Chrissie Hynde last convened her Pretenders for a full-length recording, and a lot has happened in the meantime for women in rock -- from little things like Liz Phair and riot grrrl to big ones like Alanis Morissette and Lilith Fair. But Hynde, who's managed only eight albums in 20 years, seems untouched by time or trend on Viva El Amor, even if an occasional trip-hop-tinged beat and subtle wash of electronic interference poke through the chiming Fenders and double-tracked vocals of the new disc. Like Tom Petty and, well, not many others, Hynde's an idiosyncratic-yet-accessible enough frontperson to have gotten away with sticking to the same basic pop-rock formula without necessarily incurring diminishing returns. Everything, from the sound of her voice to the style of her songwriting, is so recognizably hers that you have to wonder why she hasn't discarded the Pretenders trademark and taken on Chrissie Hynde as a brand name, particularly since drummer Martin Chambers is the only surviving original Pretender. But even Hynde's love of the four-piece-rock-band dynamic remains unchanged.

Viva El Amor opens with Hynde talking her way through a "Brass in Pocket"- or "Back to Ohio"-style tune in which she comments, "They don't make 'em like they used to" (and rhymes Kylie Minogue with Vogue for extra credit), coasts gracefully into bittersweet "Talk of the Town" terrain for "Human" (one of two tracks she didn't write), and goes on to refer to everything from the harmonica-blown grit of "Middle of the Road" to the wistful, weathered caress of "Back on the Chain Gang." In other words, Viva El Amor finds a way to touch on just about every Pretender peak from the last two decades without feeling overly nostalgic. Hynde knows they don't make 'em like they used to, but she's clearly just talking about people, not songs.

-- Matt Ashare