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Loose Screw

Lie To Me
single Time
single You Know Who Your Friends Are
single Complex Person
Fools Must Die
Kinda Nice, I Like It
Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
I Should Of
Clean Up Woman
single The Losing
single Saving Grace
Walk Like A Panther

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Rolling Stone December 12, 2002

The Pretenders: Loose Screw
by James Hunter

On the Pretenders' eighth album, Chrissie Hynde and collaborator Adam Seymour have matched expansive songs to roomy reggae-ish bottoms. The results are top-flight: With one exception -- "Lie to Me," a thuggy, technologically tricked-up number -- everything here is all programmed refinement, stylish melodies and vocal fireworks. On "You Know Who Your Friends Are," Hynde is lost in some obscure story, yet her voice sails over the Sly and Robbie-style groove with authority. On "Clean Up Woman," as the band slides through what sounds like a lost reggae classic, she portrays an everyday superwoman with a mysterious air; on a dynamite version of the All Seeing I's "Walk Like a Panther," she returns much of the 1988 U.K. hit's soul source -- the Temptations' "(I Know) I'm Losing You" -- to the tune. And on a ballad masterpiece titled "The Losing," Hynde takes the role of a woman hooked on pain. Throughout Loose Screw, though, Hynde herself hasn't got time for that.

(Rating: 4 stars = Excellent)

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