I still love Huey Lewis and the News (HUUUUEYYY!) as some of the people in the audience would call him. But his concert was kind of meh in a major way. Here's why.
New material. More specifically, Soulsville
(Image taken from: examiner.com)
It's not that I don't understand that the dude wants to plug his latest stuff, but almost the whole concert was his latest stuff, and that's not cool.
I mean, it's not that the new stuff is awful. But I wanted to hear, "Trouble in Paradise."
It's such a better song. But the whole concert only consisted of about four or five of the classics. And for a tour called "The Power of Love," you'd think it'd be more of the classics. Oh, well. At least my fiance and I got to see him, and that's saying something.
If you've ever bought a greatest hits album before, there are like, four or five (Or six or seven, if you're lucky) great songs on it that are immediately familiar or awesome to you. And then...there are the other songs. These songs are typically tracks that nobody's heard unless they've actually bought the group's whole albums before, and if that's the case, then why the hell would that person want to buy a Greatest Hits album in the first place? Sure, some of these songs may have been played once or twice on some college radio somewhere, but for the most part, a song like "Family Man," by Hall and Oates wasn't getting the same kind of airplay that say, "Maneater," was getting on the major stations. Granted, some singles are beefier than others, but when I buy an album that's called Hall and Oates Greatest Hits, I'm expecting the GREATEST HITS, not the MODERATE, YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD THESE HITS BEFORE.
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Most of the time, these Greatest Hits albums are just plain long when they should be leaner and meaner.
And then, there's Huey Lewis and the News Greatest Hits, which is, I think, the greatest assortment of songs to ever be compiled together in history.
I don't know if they were just an excellent group overall, but even the lesser known songs like "Jacob's Ladder."
Or "Trouble in Paradise"
are just as, if not better than, "The Power of Love," or "I Need a New Drug."
I'm serious. And I love those songs.
Even the crummier songs, like, "Couple Days Off," or "Back in Time," are listenable if you're just driving in your car. Sure, I'd skip these songs 9 times out of 10, but for that 1 time that I do listen to them, I realize that they're really not that bad at all.
Overall, this Greatest Hits album is the closest one that I would call near-perfect. Get it on iTunes. I think it's only like, eight dollars or something like that. It's a steal!
