5 keepers
keeper avg .555
With four top ten hits, "Heart of Rock & Roll", "Heart and Soul"****, "I Want A New Drug"****, and "If This Is It"*****, it's no wonder this album broke Huey Lewis big and went on to sell 7 million copies. Of these four, only the lyrically lazy, overlong "Heart of Rock & Roll" isn't energizing, and even here each verse is driven home by a great stinger like "really kicks 'em in the (drum fill), or the stuttered "th-th-th-th-they say.....". Though lyrically "Walking On A Thin Line"**** doesn't perfectly capture the seriousness of soldiers' experience in Vietnam (it's actually by two guys from the band Clover) the band's relatively tough execution fits the song's 80's urgency; this single also made top 20. The robot-icized doo-wop, Chicago blues-inspired "Bad Is Bad"**** is dated as hell, which only serves to enhance Lewis's skewering of live bands, buffets, and cheating girlfriends. Interestingly, It was written by Lewis while working with Phil Lynot, who later covered it with his solo band. The sparse verse introductions in "Finally Found A Home"**** are more of a Survivor approach than the usual retro-bar-band, but it's still more interesting than "Heart of Rock & Roll." "You Crack Me Up" and a bland cover of Hank Williams's "Honky Tonk Blues" are the clunkers of the bunch, but eight songs in that's not a shabby effort.
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