My Top Twenty of 2020: #7

 

I make no secret of my love of Huey Lewis, but that said... he hasn't made an essential album since the career-topping Fore! back in 1986. Its follow-up, Small World, got a lot of turntable time from me back in the late 80s, but I haven't listened to it since, and his output following that consisted mostly of throwback rock 'n' roll covers sets. His first four albums, culminating in the aFOREmentioned, are all essential discs in my mind... though he gets a lot more respect for them on his own side of the Atlantic than he does here in the UK where serious musos turn their noses up at him.  

The buzz for Weather started a couple of years back - he'd found his mojo again, and this was going to be the most Huey album we'd heard in over 30 years. And then, tragedy struck. Huey contracted Ménière's disease, an inner ear condition that leads to severe tinnitus, hearing loss and vertigo. It's currently untreatable, and as it grew steadily worse, it soon put pay to the rest of the album, and any hopes of Huey touring again. Finally, the band decided to release the completed songs as a 7 track mini album, and fans got to hear what will likely be the final Huey Lewis record.

It's a very retro-sounding collection, despite being made up mostly of new compositions, along with one cover, Eugene Church's 1958 hit Pretty Girls Everywhere (also the debut single for The Walker Brothers), a track so out of step with contemporary mores that I love it all the more. 

There's nothing here that will win him any new fans, but oldies like me... and Brandon Flowers, Jimmy Buffet, Michael Keaton, Andy Garcia, Brad Paisley et al (all featured in the video below)... will take it to our hearts and cherish it forever. 

Thank you, Huey. Wishing you better times...