Apparently, the Tubes agree with Randy Newman's opinion that the members of Toto are "the best players of rock & roll ever," because their eighth album, Outside Inside, sounds at times as shrill and overdone as any of Toto's records. With Outside Inside, the Tubes have in large measure sacrificed wit for airplay: they serve up stock rock scenarios about faceless wonderwomen, alternately emulating Toto's echo-chamber histrionics and Earth, Wind and Fire's horny wall of funk–aided and abetted, in fact, by members of both bands. What Newsweek has called "Toto's cash-register sound" rings all over side one, especially in the harsh choirs of harmony that engulf singer Fee Waybill, while side two aims to get funkier – though I question the taste of a number like "Wild Women of Wongo," given the black-music borrowings.

All right, the Tubes' remake of Major Lance's "The Monkey Time"–a duet between Fee Waybill and the Motels' Martha Davis–is readymade for the dance floor, and "Theme Park" puts a telling twist on a ridiculous modern commonplace in true Tubes fashion. But on the whole, the album points up the Tubes' central dilemma: they've yet to find a musical identity of their own. Outside Inside might please Randy Newman, but this Tubes fan is disappointed. (RS 398)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH