The specter of Reo Speedwagon's belated superstardom must hang heavy over a band like Nazareth. After flirting with hard-rock success during a twelve-year, fourteen-album career, the Scottish sextet can almost taste that long-awaited breakthrough. Unfortunately, 2XS will not be Nazareth's Hi Infidelity.

Identity rather than inspiration seems to be the problem here. Any band that has transformed material from the likes of the Everly Brothers ("Love Hurts") and Joni Mitchell ("This Flight Tonight") into hard-rock anthems obviously has an intuitive feel for well-crafted pop music, and the best of the self-penned tunes on 2XS are catchy and melodic. Yet Nazareth also has a reputation as an asskicking rock band; for every tightly crafted "Love Leads to Madness," which would not seem out of place on a Fleetwood Mac LP, we get two perfunctory heavy-metal formula pieces like the obnoxious odes to hard-rock revelry, "Gatecrash" and "Boys in the Band." In an attempt to satisfy both the FM crowd and the AC/DC gang, Nazareth comes off less like a creatively eclectic band than a schizophrenic one.

Though it unwisely relies on decibel roar, the group actually sounds more soulful and relaxed on the ballad "Dream On" and the reggae-tinged "You Love Another." When acoustic guitars and keyboards dominate producer and engineer John Punter's precise mix on "Love Leads to Madness" and "Games," Nazareth sounds almost inspired. These cuts prove that restraint rather than excess is where Nazareth's talent lies. (RS 377)

STEVE FUTTERMAN