It has taken Jim Messina three albums to slip out of his sideman sweatshirt and don the trappings of a star, but in Full Sail, the Loggins and Messina Band's third release, he does just that. With his confidence bolstered by gold albums, undisputed box-office success and numerous cover versions of his music by C&W, pop and soul artists, he has turned the focus of the band's attention from Kenny...

For those who found so much good on the first three Loggins and Messina albums and have been disappointed since by their artistic slide, Native Sons must count as another disappointment. Half of the ten songs are more than four minutes long yet none are interesting enough musically to support such extravagance. These are pop songs, which, by definition, find strength in brevity. To dilute them is...

Recorded live in San Francisco, New York and Boston, this two-record set communicates the essence of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina more fully than their three studio albums. Their rapport with a live audience spurs them to execute semi-improvisational rave-ups and to vent vocal enthusiasms that have only been half-realized in their studio work. Though L&M's music is neither profound nor startlingl...