Today's mainstream rock "sound" has nothing to do with traditional notions of style–as in heavy metal, southern boogie or progressive rock – and everything to do with such production effects as a fat guitar sound or a hot vocal mix. Thus, a quasi-metal bar band like REO Speedwagon ends up sounding the same as one-time progressives Foreigner, and most of what's heard on rock radio is so similar you almost need a program to tell the players apart.

It shouldn't be too difficult to spot 38 Special in this crowd; with their beards and shoulder-length hair, they look every bit the way a southern rock band is expected to look.

When it comes to their sound, however, things get trickier. Although much of Special Forces holds on to such tried-and-true southern rock devices as hard-edged boogie riffs and a swaggering backbeat, it plays them down in favor of harmony vocals and a streamlined guitar sound. On the album's most memorable tracks, "Caught Up in You" and "You Keep Runnin' Away," it abandons them altogether, offering instead a smooth pop sound that might as easily have been REO Journeywagon. Catchy, above-average pop, but by no means special. (RS 374)

J.D. CONSIDINE