Not All Of The Best Of Huey Lewis And The News: Time Flies

The Good: All the strengths of a great American band - good lyrics, music, sound
The Bad: Where is "Hip To Be Square?!", New tracks don't stack up
The Basics: Time Flies: The Best of Huey Lewis & The News is a solid "best of" album lacking one of the group's best songs, but otherwise a decent album for just about any fan of rock and roll.


It might seem like I've suddenly become a fan of Huey Lewis and the News from my reviews of Fore! (reviewed here!) and Sports (reviewed here!), but as a child of the 80s, how can one not be? Sure, if you're not into 80s pop-rock, I suppose it's possible to not like Huey Lewis, but if you're learning about the history of rock and roll, Huey Lewis and the News is part of a seminal early/mid-80s movement in rock and roll. For a time, rock and roll took on a retro-50s sound that cut out the overproduction of the 1970s disco movement, and brought back diverse instruments (horns, sax) and prioritized vocals and harmonizing. For that, Huey Lewis and the News is essential listening for the serious music consumer.

On Time Flies: The Best of Huey Lewis & The News the group makes the case for their career, which in 1996 when this was released seemed to indicate they were pretty much through. With sixteen tracks, Time Flies has twelve recognizable, legitimate hits and four new singles, none of which are distinctive or as interesting as the prior twelve.

For those unfamiliar with Huey Lewis and the News, this is an awesome album to capture most of the Greatest Hits of the band - they call it a "Best of" album which from Oasis's definition we accept is not necessarily the Greatest Hits. Huey Lewis and the News is a vocally-powered rock and roll band that puts heavy emphasis on strong lead vocals and articulate harmonizing. Their instrumentals as strong, but used as supportive to the lyrics and vocals and the band puts little emphasis on production. The result is a very natural musical sound that resonates well with the average listener.

Huey Lewis has a very good-natured, easy to understand baritone voice, making the simple act of listening to Huey Lewis and the News very easy on the ears. He sings quite well, including over some fairly complicated sets of lyrics. On "Stuck With You" for example, he gets out "We are bound by all the rest / Like the same phone number / All the same friends / And the same address" with full articulation at decent tempo.

Most of Huey Lewis and the News' songs are fairly up tempo, with a feel-good rhythm that gets the toes tapping. This takes from the early days of rock and roll where the music was evolving out of a combination of swing and jazz. Huey Lewis and the News harkens back to that era in sound, though with generally better rhyme schemes.

For fans of Huey Lewis and the News, you might be pleased to know that most of your favorites are here. All four successful singles from Sports - "Heart and Soul," "Heart of Rock & Roll," "If This Is It," and "I Want A New Drug" are present along with "Bad Is Bad" (though I don't know why they included that one). From Fore! there is "Stuck With You" and "Doing It All For My Baby," but bafflingly no "Hip To Be Square." From Picture This (their only major album I've yet to review) are "Do You Believe In Love" and "Workin' For A Living'" (which gives the band their reputation for working-class anthems). From the Back To The Future soundtrack is "The Power of Love" and from other works are the recognizable "It's Alright" and "Trouble In Paradise."

The four new tracks are nothing extraordinary, though the sheer number of hits on Time Flies makes this a lean album; there's little artistic fat here. Whereas Fore! had a number of songs that were decent but were clearly never going to be singles, Time Flies: The Best of Huey Lewis & The News is packed with so many hits that even the four new tracks seem like they could have been singles at one point or another.

The main difference between the latter four tracks and the earlier twelve is in the sound and the themes. While most of Huey Lewis and the News's earlier albums have upbeat songs - even when they are not upbeat subjects being sung about - Time Flies has songs like "So Little Kindness." "So Little Kindness" laments the lack of decency in the world with a downtempo that accents the lyrics in a way that is not characteristic of this particular band.

Similarly, "'Til The Day After" sounds like the end of a USO tour. While not quite a "Goodnight, Sweetheart," it is the rock and roll equivalent. About fidelity and living life, is an affirmative song about loving someone forever and the strength of love, walk off into the sunset type song. The album closes with "When The Time Has Come" which ends with an upbeat, more typical Huey Lewis and the News track.

All four of the new tracks are written or co-written by Huey Lewis or members of The News, which is probably why the songs come so naturally to the group. Perhaps that is the real difference; the latter four tracks have a slightly more "balanced" sound to them, mixing the vocals of Huey Lewis more with the instrumentals and backgrounds from the News.

In the final analysis, this is a nice substitute for other albums by Huey Lewis and the News for those just discovering the band and looking to get almost all of their hits in one place and the four songs are enough to offer the die-hard fans a chance to get something new that's enjoyable. For those in the middle, I suppose - having just learned there are other "Greatest Hits" albums from Huey Lewis and the News - one of the other options might be better.

The best track is "Stick With You," which remains one of the group's most successful songs. My least favorite on the album is "100 Years From Now," one of the new tracks.

For other “Greatest Hits” albums from contemporaries of Huey Lewis And The News, please visit my reviews of:
All The Best - Tina Turner
Words & Music - John Mellencamp
Best Of Bowie - David Bowie

6.5/10

Check out all of the other musical works I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page for an alphabetical listing (by artist) of all my music reviews!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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There Was More I'd Forgotten . . . Huey Lewis Ruled The 80s With Sports.

The Good: Excellent voice, Imaginative retro-musical backing, Some astonishingly good lyrics
The Bad: Moments seem dated, Expanded edition is more of the same
The Basics: Generally strong and smooth, Sports remains an enjoyable listening experience to this day and with more tracks it's now a better value.


A couple of months ago, I reviewed the Huey Lewis and the News album Fore! (reviewed here!) and was pleased to discover that it was a solid album and an enjoyable listening experience. It inspired me to pick up the remastered version of Sports, the first smash album for the band. If the liner notes for the disc can be believed - and given the quality of the four singles involved - the album spent three years on the charts.

For those who remember the 1980s, Sports is the album that features such popular Huey Lewis and The News songs "The Heart Of Rock & Roll," "Heart And Soul," "I Want A New Drug," and "If This Is It." Huey Lewis and the News defined the early 80s pop rock sound with mellow backing vocals, a diverse range of instruments and forthright and articulate lead vocals.

The surprise of listening to Sports now is to hear how much Huey Lewis and the News actually ROCKED! The guitars on "Heart And Soul," for example are tight. They are strong electric guitars that exemplify how that instrument is played still. For a band whose works are now relegated to the easy listening stations, it's fun to hear what the band actually produced because while a lot of it is pop, there is also the whole rock side to it that is neglected. While I am not much of a fan of "Walking On A Thin Line," the drums in it are solidly rock drumming.

Huey Lewis's vocals sound as good now as they did back in the early '80s. Lewis's baritone is smooth and articulate. He gets easily around such lyrics as "I want a new drug / One with no doubt / One that won't make me talk too much / Or make my face break out" (“I Want A New Drug”). It's easy to listen to his voice and just feel mellowed out. He sings remarkably well and the ease with which the lyrics he sings roll off his lips seems effortless.

Perhaps that is because he wrote or co-wrote six of the nine original tracks on Sports. The other three tracks are written by people who aren't even in the News (the final track on the original release is a cover of Hank Williams's Honky Tonk Blues). The writers of "Heart And Soul" clearly have the "sound" of the band. Lewis and his team write well, though with some nicely unpredictable rhymes, like "You should see yourself in the mirror / With your leather lips and your snakeskin shoes / Do you have to shout in my ear / Do me a favor, just stop talking for a minute or two" ("You Crack Me Up").

The only truly limited track, in terms of lyrics, is "Finally Found A Home." The refrain to the song uses very predictable rhymes, like "belong/song" and the rest of the song does such things as rhyme "up" with itself, which is generally a pet peeve of mine.

On the extended version there are previously unreleased versions of "The Heart Of Rock & Roll," "Walking On A Thin Line," "If This Is It," "Heart And Soul," and "I Want A New Drug." These are a fun addition and basically covers how short the original album was, making it a better value. The disappointing aspect of the album then becomes that it is more repetitive than it ought to be. I would imagine the single versions of the four songs released as singles had b-sides. Those might have been a better value than the live or "session take" (demo) versions of the songs that were the band's big hits.

Then again, they are wonderful songs and it's always nice to hear the alternative versions along side their originals. This album, then, mostly suffers from the length and the weakness of some of the non-hit tracks. The marketing team behind Sports and Huey Lewis and the News wisely released the best tracks on the album and in retrospect it is not surprising the album did so well.

Huey Lewis and the News creates a new-sounding rock and roll sound by recreating a 50s sound with emphasis on vocal harmonizing and the instrumentals. So, for example, on "Honky Tonk Blues," there are guitar and piano solos that are virtually unheard of on current pop-rock tracks. And it's refreshing to hear the emphasis on instrumentals even now.

The best track is either the rock-heavy "Heart And Soul" or the vocally-strong "If This Is It." The weak track is the predictably-rhymed "Finally Found A Home."

For contemporaries of Huey Lewis And The News, please visit my reviews of:
Words & Music - John Mellencamp
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner

7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Cry For The ‘80s: How Huey Lewis And The News Were Cool

The Good: Decent music, Good voices, Some fun songs
The Bad: Some real lame rhymes.
The Basics: Huey Lewis and the News helped define the 80s sound and Fore! remains worth listening to. It's fun and easy on the ears.


Given the way I rag on the 80s sometimes, I think there are some who might think from my reviews that I do not appreciate the decade of my childhood. In a recent review of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers's album, I complained that the sound was too 80s. My complaint was based on the idea that I see Tom Petty as a true original and my disappointment with that album was it felt like he was simply putting his sound in a style that did not fit it. But the truth is, sad to say, there is much about music from the 1980s I do enjoy, music that embodied the decade and created the weird mix of pop-rock vocals, techno and the dying days of disco.

The 80s saw a resurgence of the 50s vocal and instrumental combinations as embodied by Billy Joel, the J. Guiles Band and Huey Lewis and the News. Huey Lewis and the News is one of the bands that when I think of I recall a scene from Gilmore Girls wherein Rory notes that she found Lorelei's Bryan Adams c.d. behind the toilet. Yes, there are guilty pleasures we have with our childhood and Huey Lewis and the News is a band that it is profoundly uncool to like now.

Too bad.

On Fore! Huey Lewis and the News help recreate a sound that disappeared among the folk and psychedelia of the 60s and the disco and rock and roll resurgence of the 70s. In the 50s, much of rock and roll was vocals with music backing in a way to complement the vocals. Occasionally, there would be moments with instrumental solos (of instruments other than the guitar) and acapella moments as well, where there were no backing instruments.

Huey Lewis and the News recreate that sound that is smooth, vocally-based and easily listenable. Fore! has the now-classic tracks "Doing It All For My Baby" and the tongue-in-cheek "Stuck With You." One of the most 50s-esque songs on the album is the quirky "Hip To Be Square," which still rocks.

"Hip To Be Square" is a good example of the overall sound of the album. Huey Lewis gives strong vocals while supported by a strong background of saxophones, drums and keyboards. The song ends with strong backing vocals from, if I'm not mistaken from the liner notes, an assortment of football players. The song rocks with a sound that is both 80s new and 50s reminiscent with a hint of the big band sound that preceded rock and roll.

It's hard to find an album with such musical diversity these days, but Fore! has a surprising amount within the pop-rock field. The album is well arranged in that regard as well, with a strong sax song followed by one heavier on guitars and keyboards which then is followed by one where the vocals are strongest and so on. Fore! is surprisingly well put together.

That's not to say it's a perfect album. As is my way, even recognizing the age of the album (I give much leniency for 70s and before in this regard), there are some ridiculously simple lyrics with rhyme schemes that are predictable and easy. Despite the pretty awesome melody and harmony that makes up the refrain of "I Never Walk Alone," it's unforgivable for opening with "You could wind up stranded in the lost and found / So you better stick together if you want to stick around / Now me and the boys got our own little plan / Somebody out there will understand / And we'll have the world in the palm of our hand. . . " "Found/around," "plan/understand/hand," then "know/go," "fun/one," and "face/race/face" just are painful to read on the page for the rhymes, though Huey Lewis and the News present them remarkably well aloud.

I have to say I respect the collaborative effort Fore! represents. The songs are written by various members of the band, including some of the additional musicians credited on the album. While the bulk are members of the group, three or four tracks are written by artists who are not. The album is remarkably cohesive, though.

Because Fore! was originally released on cassette (and no doubt record) my usual complaint about length of the album is waived, though it would be nice for the album to be longer than the ten-track, thirty-eight minutes that it is. Note to 80s artists who have not yet released on c.d.s: Condense multiple albums to one disc, it'll make consumers happy!

Ironically, one of the tracks accomplishes the entire song perfectly before continuing on redundantly. "Naturally" would have been truly great as a short, burst a capella number with just the opening. Instead, it repeats with instruments and a bridge and it's too bad the band chose to do that.

All in all, Fore! is a fun, easy-listening pop-rock album that reminds the listener - or could educate new listeners to - why Huey Lewis and the News helped define the sound of the 80s. The best track is "Stuck With You," the low point is "I Know What I Like."

For other music from the same era, check out my reviews of:
Super Hits - Eddie Money
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner

7.5/10

For other music reviews, check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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