Though it's hard to imagine a Doobie Brothers album without one, Livin' on the Fault Line does not have a single tune featuring a "China Grove" chunka-chunka guitar. There is a slick Motown cover, the single "Little Darling (I Need You)," but the dominant tone of Fault Line is the texturally laid-back rock the Doobies have drifted toward since former Steely Dan members Jeff Baxter and Michael McDonald assumed dominant positions.

The new Doobie sound puts rhythmic emphasis on McDonald's piano instead of on guitar, and his tunes in particular run in a subtler groove. The Doobies no longer bludgeon; they soothe with easy-rolling rhythms that are rounded-off by touches of MOR jazz (like the vibes on the title tune and Baxter's fine solo on "Need a Lady"). Such homogenized sound puts additional weight on the material, though, and herein lies the album's primary fault. Though songs like "You're Made That Way" have the melodic hooks to fend off the potential blandness of the instrumentation, others simply echo and amplify producer Ted Templeman's even mix. By the middle of side two, the music begins to sound creatively paralyzed.

Song for song, last year's Takin' It to the Streets beats out Fault Line. Where Streets challenged the Doobies' listeners with new combinations and a bright sound, Fault Line seems more concerned with refining the formula. The Doobie Brothers continue to produce smooth, adult rock (more consistently than before, in fact), but without the threat of at least a little bite, their music slips too easily into the background. (RS 251)

JOHN MILWARD