Huey Lewis and the News

As instantly likable as Huey Lewis and the News was, it was only a matter of time before their everyday-Joe rock took off with the masses, and Sports was the album that did it. Their formula is ingeniously simple: Lewis sings in a raspy, easy-to-understand tenor about universal themes (with occasional drug references); the band lays back into midtempo bar-band rock; the hooks are huge and bluesy and easy to swallow. If you don't know every word to half the mainstream radio singalongs on this album, you were probably living under CBGB for a good portion of the '80s.

Wed Journey-style AOR fodder to bar-band blues, and two products are possible: tough,
inventive rock & roll with arena-sized power, or plodding, unconvincing music drawn out by
aimless soloing. This Bay Area quintet offers not enough of the former and way too much of
the latter. Lewis' pleasantly raspy blues voice gets a good workout on Mike Chapman and
Nick Chinn's gutty "The Heart and Soul." But a fancy-pants sax solo and some mor... More >

You said it, the man's an utter cornball, but on this album I simply succumb to the stupid pleasures of his big fat rockcraft. Even though I know it isn't the "same old back beat" that keeps rock and roll alive, but rather musicians brave or bored enough to f*ck with it, something same-old has me grunting with pleasure at that song every time I let down my guard. No guard required: "I Want a New Drug" (recreational), "Bad Is Bad" (bad), and "Walking on a Thin Line" (when are Vietnam Veterans Against the War putting together their compilation album?). (Grade - B+)