Consumer Guide Album

Neil Sedaka: The Hungry Years [Rocket, 1975]
Modes of integrity: Sedaka's Back, compiled from two-plus English albums, sounded organic, while this star-time El Lay session sounds homogenized. Neil's voice has changed--the light girl-groupy moments have turned bitchy and the sentimentality is thick with incipient sobs. Figure best-ofs are his natural element and remember that only if he goes away can he come back again. C+