The Knack

Knack fans will forever contend that their band suffered unduly and irreparably from a critical backlash that followed the group's first album. Less strident lovers of power-pop argue that the group never had much in 'em beyond their mega-hit "My Sharona," and their catalogue bears that out.

Early detractors had a barrel of reasons for hating the Knack: Their lyrics were sexist (though they were mostly just sexual), they copped moves from the Beatles' playbook, they refused to give interviews, and their song was overplayed. But "My Sharona" was a hit for good reason. The beat is urgent, the chorus calls out for drunken shouting along, and the guitar solo is a firecracker flash. Throughout Get the Knack, the band winds itself tighter than a hot pair of disco jeans, then does its best to hold on to that energy until it's time to explode.

The title of the second album has less to do with the blues (it comes from Willie Dixon's "The men don't know . . .") than with flipping off critics as out-of-touch geezers. But "Baby Talks Dirty" is cut too much from the same cloth as "Sharona," and the rockabilly licks elsewhere don't do enough to distinguish the disc. The band truly fell flat with the Steely Dan–lite sounds and disco horns of Round Trip. For their 1991 resurrection bid, Serious Fun, producer Don Was shined up the Knack to sound like a cheesy amal-gam of Starship, Boston, and Heart. Sex-obsessed though they are, the band aren't lecherous enough to grow successfully into old-man sleazes à la AC/DC; "Rocket o' Love" is simply embarrassing.

Re-Zoom, a slightly expanded version of the second comeback attempt Zoom (1998), features former Missing Persons and Frank Zappa band member Terry Bozzio in the group's oft-vacant drummer slot. While the disc eventually improves, the anti-MTV opener "Pop Is Dead" reveals that 20 years on, the Knack themselves no longer know what the little girls understand. If "Can I Borrow a Kiss" sounds like parody, that's because The Simpsons beat the group to the idea by two years with the schlock satire "Can I Borrow a Feeling." With Normal As the Next Guy, the Knack get back on the power-pop track with crisp production and smart melodies. Live From the Rock n Roll Funhouse is the soundtrack to the DVD of the same name, which depicts the band in 2001 performing their hits on a fictional 1960s-style TV show. Proof: The Very Best of the Knack will best serve anyone looking for more than "My Sharona." (CHRIS NELSON)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide