Wed Journey-style AOR fodder to bar-band blues, and two products are possible: tough, inventive rock & roll with arena-sized power, or plodding, unconvincing music drawn out by aimless soloing. This Bay Area quintet offers not enough of the former and way too much of the latter.

Lewis' pleasantly raspy blues voice gets a good workout on Mike Chapman and Nick Chinn's gutty "The Heart and Soul." But...

In the '80s, singing "Hip to Be Square," Huey Lewis illegitimately bestowed the crown of cool on partying yuppies. Oldschool rockers scoffed; punks found the oldster irrelevant. His well-washed minions, however, guzzled him like Jagermeister. The News were a first-rate bar band; Lewis' singing was less notable than his jockish geniality. Now Huey returns with a tribute to fundamental rock & roll...

Listening to Huey Lewis and the News is like eating hot dogs at the ballpark: They taste fine in context but don't encourage much thought about nutritional value. The Bay Area band rose to prominence in the early Eighties, when its spit-polished rock & roll sounded comparatively rootsy. A decade later, its style grown only to accommodate a cushier recorded sound, Huey Lewis and the News sound like...

One of the most democratic tenets of rock & roll is that clean-cut and middle-class doesn't necessarily mean uncool. After all, there's a world of difference between Pat Boone and Buddy Holly, between the Lettermen and the Beach Boys, between the Osmonds and the Bee Gees. One is bland and stiff and about as appealing as Cheez Whiz, the other is high-spirited and mobile, with a sense of adventure...