Sports

iTunes Review

San Francisco-based Huey Lewis & The News worked hard to perfect their straightforward brand of pop/rock and came up with a winner with 1983’s Sports. The album is something of an American counterpart to the music of Nick Lowe (an old cohort of Huey’s) and similar British pub-rock artists. The songs here are clever without being pretentious, highlighting Lewis’ R&B-inflected vocals and Chris Hayes’ succinct lead guitar. The big hits — “The Heart Of Rock And Roll,” “Heart And Soul,” “I Want A New Drug,” and especially the genial break-up tune “If This Is It” — have retained their cheerful swing over the decades. Also worth checking out are some of the lesser-known tracks, like the galloping “You Crack Me Up” (a snapshot of a whacked-out party animal) and the bluesy “Bad Is Bad” (a wry hard-luck litany). Playing against his good-time image, Lewis tackles the struggles of Viet Nam vets in “Walking On A Thin Line.” Huey and his combo deserved the huge audience they won with these ear-grabbing tracks. Sports definitely scores.