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Album Review

The BoDeans toured as opening act to U2 while promoting their second album, Outside Looking In, and you could tell they had stuck around to listen to the headliners on their third album, Home, which contained at least four songs with guitar work that seemed to have been copied from the fingers of U2's The Edge. Elsewhere, the BoDeans seemed to be seeking to escape their "roots rock" tag by turning out one genre exercise after another — country & western on "Beaujolais," '60s Motown R&B on "When The Love Is Good," '50s rock & roll on "Good Work" and "Sylvia." The only times when the band sounded like itself were when Sammy Llanas got to do one of his story songs, such as "No One" or "Far Far Away From My Heart." But those sounded more like Llanas solo efforts than group works. You had to admit that things had changed for this band over three albums: initially, they sounded so style-bound that you wondered if any growth was possible, but with this album they were charging off in half a dozen directions at once. Whether that indicated transition or just confusion remained to be seen.