Last time out, it was a McLuhan-esque swipe at mass media. Now the Tubes are sending up those industrial giants of the Big Board–your IBMs, Du Ponts, Xeroxes, et al. – and the whole merger-minded corporate mentality. Fee Waybill as Lee Iacocca? Hmmm. Yes, the seven musicians-cum-businessmen pictured on the back cover of The Completion Backward Principle, affecting well-tailored gray-flannel suits and a proper aridity of expression, could be eager-beaver postgrads out of Stanford or MIT. Most likely, they're pushing drafting pencils somewhere in the Silicone Valley area of California.

As any marketing manager worth his MBA will tell you, the bottom line is always the final product, and here the Tubes have taken a no-nonsense, shirt-sleeves, hands-on approach. Inspect the hardware closely and you'll note that this outfit has undergone a theoretical retooling. They've consolidated their assets, shaving off the excelsior and perfecting a unified group design. And this is sound scientific thinking: astute students of physics are quick to confirm that the fewer the edges, the stronger the bonding. In fact, the Tubes have constructed a swell 1981 model, one that pays homage to some of the hottest traders on the AM exchange while maintaining their own identifiable, high-tech image.

With its scatalogically disinterested lyrics ("I met her on a strip/It was another lost weekend"), "Talk to Ya Later" glibly targets the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old, swinging-singles set. Other AM possibilities include "Don't Want to Wait Anymore," a lush MOR ballad shamelessly cloned from the likes of Gino Vannelli and the Commodores, and "Let's Make Some Noise," a computer-programmed Hall and Oates-style schematic that begs audience participation. Elsewhere, "Sushi Girl," with a wry Japanese flavoring as tangy as soy sauce, is a successful incursion into a foreign market. Multinationalism and all that.

But–ah–here's the rub. Even tough-minded technocrats need occasional affection, and "Think about Me" posits the unavoidable snag in any briefcase-toter's day-to-day: "Maybe we'll meet again, or maybe we'll just pretend that's how it's been, love's not forever." The twist is that it's not just technology that has the Tubes tied up, it's the emotional fallout of love in the electronic age.

This latest product, then, works on two levels: as a well-plotted collection of commodities that could easily cross over into any number of markets, and as a felicitous statement about means-ends rationalizing in a consumer-oriented society. And while it may not be the most enduring item in the Tubes catalog (topping Remote Control will be difficult), The Completion Backward Principle is functional, entertaining and a tenable blueprint for a helluva live show.

Hey, look closely at those seven faces again. Is that smug self-confidence they're conveying, or are they suppressing laughter? Are they aiming for the Fortune 500 or the Top Forty? Both? And one more thing: would achievement-oriented young systems engineers really be spending lost weekends on the Strip?

I'm on to you guys. (RS 352)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH