Sometimes it isn't about listening to music so new that it is at the shockwave just ahead of the cutting edge, sometimes it is nice to listen to something familiar and comforting, cue 'Fore!' by Huey Lewis & The News.
The album contains the obvious hits, 'Stuck With You', 'Hip To Be Square' and the Grammy Award-winning, Back To The Future juggernaut, 'The Power Of Love' (a bonus track on the international release fact fans), but there are some other decent tracks on here too.
I love the track 'I Know What I Like', a song I had completely forgotten about if I'm being honest until it came blaring out of my speakers. It is a big, dumb list song but it really works for me. 'Jacob's Ladder' is another cracker, turns out it was written by Bruce Hornsby for one of his albums but he didn't fancy it so Lewis snaffled it up.
Another notable track is 'Forrest For The Trees', which Lewis apparently wrote for young fans who contacted him to say they were struggling with life issues but wanted him to know how important his music was to them. The track has an uplifting message including the lyric "things are never as bad as they seem, just gotta learn to see the forest for the trees".
There are a few iffy moments on the record, most noticeably the song 'Naturally', an a capella tale of a broken heart near the end of the album. What was it with Doo-Wop in the 80s? I can almost see Lewis and the lads standing around a burning oil drum, under a bridge, at night having a sing-off with Billy Joel! To be fair, the song isn't bad, it is just, erm, well Doo-Wop!!!
This album isn't going to be put up on a pedestal and worshipped like 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' or 'Rumours' but as an example of 80s American pop/rock, it is pretty damn good in my opinion and well worth the whopping £7 (delivered) I paid for a near mint copy from eBay!
Tracks To Try: 'Jacob's Ladder', 'Hip To Be Square', 'I Know What I Like', 'Forrest For The Trees'.