New Arrival Viva El Amor

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Chrissie Hynde is back to kick some ass. Viva el Amor!, the Pretenders’ first studio album since 1994’s Last of the Independents, provides a reading on the singer’s state of mind and relationships. Hynde and company–stalwart drummer Martin Chambers and an assortment of complementary players–take the energy level to breathtaking heights, especially on “Legalise Me,” which matches Jeff Beck’s incendiary guitar work against our heroine’s rapid-fire delivery. Hynde shows that she can still sneer with the best of them on “Popstar,” her biting send-up of late-’90s girl singers (and reportedly a roman clef aimed in part at Patsy Kensit, who was once married to Hynde’s former husband, Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr). “Baby’s Breath” skewers a young lover and showcases her sangfroid vocals at their chilling best. Hynde pours on more vitriol in “Biker,” the record’s final cut, which pairs steel-hard lyrics with an incongruously sweet st