Peter Wolf: Long Line : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

At 50 years old, Peter Wolf, the former J. Geils Band frontman, can still flex his vocal muscles with more energy and panache than a lot of the Young Turks whose stiff, droning voices presently permeate the FM radio airwaves. (You know who you are, guys.) On Long Line, his first album in six years, Wolf tackles R&B-drenched rockers and bluesy ballads with a vibrant facility. If anything, his singing seems to have grown richer and sultrier, often making him sound like a more earnest Mick Jagger.

The arrangements on Long Line, with their crisp guitar licks and neatly vigorous keyboards, feel a bit slick at times. But tunes like the sparkling, hip-hop-laced "Romeo Is Dead" and the wistful "Two Loves" are bound to prove irresistible even to those old J. Geils die-hards who would forever associate Wolf's music with those golden days of dorm parties and cheap beer.