Fair Weather, Friend

Like many children raised in the 1980s, I was a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. I couldn't say for sure if that came before their biggest hit, "The Power of Love," was featured in Back to the Future, or if it came about from my love of that movie and everything associated with it. But I picked up Huey Lewis and the News albums well into the 90s, even their unusual compilation of 50s cover songs.

The band had essentially become a touring one only. They hadn't recorded new material since 2001, or an album of any kind since 2010. Then even the touring slowed and stopped, when Huey Lewis was diagnosed with Ménière's disease, suffering hearing loss significant enough that he could no longer sing.

But there is a new, more triumphant chapter in the story. Earlier this year, Huey Lewis and the News released a new album: Weather. (A title cheekily selected to echo their most successful album, Sports.) It's perhaps better characterized as two-thirds of an album: seven songs recorded before Lewis' hearing loss that were supposed to have been joined by more. Still it doesn't feel incomplete, it just feels short. It also feels like a high-concentration dose of what the band did best in its heyday.

The two best tracks are right up front. "While We're Young" is a slow tempo jam about enjoying the later years in life. I find it oddly uplifting, even empowering, and for those reasons a good song to visit now and then in a year like 2020. "Her Love Is Killing Me" is more like the band's classic sound, like parts of "The Heart of Rock & Roll," "Hip to Be Square," and "I Want a New Drug" all mixed perfectly in a blender. It's catchy as hell, and has a fun video in which a truly eclectic collection of fans take turns lip-syncing the lines.

You get a ballad with the new "I Am There for You," a rock shuffle in "Hurry Back Baby," and the funkier "Remind Me Why I Love You Again." There is one oddball 50s cover in the mix, the ludicrously kitsch "Pretty Girls Everywhere." You even get a straight-up country song (not my thing) in "One of the Boys." It's all laced with a punchy horn section, accented with Huey Lewis' trademark harmonica, and served with delightful nostalgia.

It's not an album where every song is great, beginning to end. But then, there aren't many of those. It is solid recommendation for anyone who ever liked Huey Lewis and the News at one point; this album will remind you why. I give Weather a B+. Or you can cherry-pick or Spotify the highlights like most people do these days for a Grade A experience.