A wise man – I think it was Billy Gibbons – once said that behind the inseam of every young hard-rock performer lurks the soul of an old lecher. If so, then A Little Ain't Enough finds David Lee Roth well on his way toward fulfilling the raincoat-draped promise he has shown ever since 1985, when he softshoed to the top of the charts with "Just a Gigolo" while the rest of Van Halen cooled their amps. So maybe life after Van Halen has been a bowl of brown M&M's for Diamond Dave; after all, he does sound and look somewhat washed out these days. (Were he and actress Dyan Cannon separated at birth, or what?) So maybe his new album wastes too much time – and too many hired-gun co-writers – seeking to re-create a suitably Halenesque fire, with Duraflame results. So maybe the best you can say about songs like "Last Call" and "Baby's on Fire" is that you can hum Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" over the former and Led Zep's "Immigrant Song" over the latter and not find a single stolen note out of place.

The simple fact is, however, that on several key tracks on A Little Ain't Enough Roth gets down and dirty with some distinctly non-adenoid-stretching adult blues belting, and he sounds more mannish-boy frisky and lustfully viable as a solo artiste than on anything he's done in years. "Hammerhead Shark," with some nifty slide work from veteran Steve Hunter, is a rollicking four-on-the-floor rocker, while the slow blues "Sensible Shoes" (complete with textbook bad harmonica by Roth) would fit the aforementioned Mr. Gibbons's band, ZZ Top, rather sharply. So, Dave – can we talk facial hair? (RS 599)

BILLY ALTMAN