Rush Street Kentucky

Rush Street

Richard Marx

Capitol Records, 1991

REVIEW BY: Duke Egbert

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/22/1999

I always kind of feel sorry for Richard Marx. The man is plainlytalented at writing good, solid, pop songs with hooks you couldland a blue whale with, but because he's got a pretty face he can'tbuy respect, and never could. To me, there's always a parallel with RickSpringfield, also a pretty decent pop singer who was too cute to beconsidered good.

Rush Street, Marx's 1991 CD, was the closest he ever got tobreaking out of his "cute boy" mode and proving he could puttogether a tight, close, adult CD. And while it has its weakmoments, there are times when this is as good as pop musicgets.

The CD starts with "Playing With Fire", kicking out the stopsright off the bat with a hard rocker, and that sets the tone forthe rest of the CD. Whatever Marx does, he throws himself into, and it shows on other hardersongs like "Hands In Your Pocket", "Streets Of Pain", and the BillyJoel-reminiscent piano line of "I Get No Sleep", where he hits hismark. Of course, trying that hard means he misses: I'm still notsure what "Love Unemotional" is supposed to be, exactly, but it'snot very good at it, and "Superstar" is a trite throwaway thatwould have been best left off Rush Street (which is a bit long, anyway).

Marx's reputation, such as it is, was made with love songs,however, and Rush Street is no exception. Interestingly enough, almostall of them are excellent, especially "Your World", "Chains AroundMy Heart", "Calling You", and "Take This Heart". The only weakpoint, oddly, is what was the second single off the CD, "KeepComing Back". It drags badly,.meandering like a bad come on line ina cheap bar.