As long as there's a market for meat-and-potatoes rock, there will be Eddie Money. He and his band still believe in basics: songs about girls and small-town escape played with honest-to-goodness guitars and drums. Still, lacking a strong personal vision to back up this grass-roots approach, Money is condemned to being a lightweight. Without, say, the populist embrace of John Cougar or the blood-an...

Originality has never been Eddie Money's strong suit. Yet on No Control, his fourth album, Money manages to make his interpretations of such proverbial rock themes as sex, drugs and–you guessed it–rock & roll ring true. Money is such an engaging and likable guy, and his raspy voice is so appealing, that one can even forgive the clichés that pop up from time to time.

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