Pretenders still blend pop, punk

For many people, The Pretenders are a pop band with a little edgier lyrics and a handful of cool singles about disastrous relationships and the occasional biker. For anyone who cared to dig deeper, especially during the band's first few years, this was one of the most original post-punk bands of its time, one that somehow had a better sense for song-craft than most of its FM (or top 40) competition. But the Pretenders are also one of those bands whose credibility is inversely proportional to the number of big singles from the album. \nSo it's no surprise they haven't received this much attention since "I'll Stand By You," on 1994's Last of the Independents. Loose Screw is an odd mix of the two sides of the band. Typically, on the best Pretenders albums (namely the first three), you can count on the band to make it obvious which songs are made for the radio and which ones aren't.\nHere, the lines are blurred further than on any of the band's other releases (except maybe Get Close, where only the pop element really remained anyway) in a way that flattens out the sound of what could've been a great album. Dance beats and loops permeate the album, wreaking havoc like that little monkey from "Outbreak."\nBut Loose Screw isn't a complete dud. In fact, the electronics and glossy sounds are at times just what the band needs. But no Pretenders album really feels complete without one track dedicating a phone call full of regret and vulnerability. "I Should Of" even has a dance break in the middle, and rattling bass chords slide smoothly enough to make it seem like that the song's just your standard mid-tempo pop gem … until Chrissie Hynde's little breakdown near the end that sounds so hopeless that it makes even the weaker moments on the rest of the album sound convincing. \nIt's a shame that the impact of the band's former guitarist's wasn't any stronger. While many of the songs fall along the lines of their biggest radio hits, the better ones, like "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" and "The Losing," don't quite compete with the brilliant, biting lyrics of "punk in disguise"like "Kid."\nIf you prefer the band's hits collection The Singles to, say, Pretenders or Learning to Crawl, then this should be your next Pretenders album purchase. It's somewhere in between those two classics, and as good as that might be, it's more moderate than rock. But then, if you prefer The Singles to Learning to Crawl, please don't ever talk to me if you see me on the street.