America is the melting pot, where diversity meets and mingles. Where else would a group such as Pablo Cruise be possible? Their vocal blend is standard lanolated white-soul harmonizing behind an anonymous Everyman of a lead singer, sincere but restrained. This band's chordal backdrop strives for the tightness and expansiveness of the Doobie Brothers, out of Steely Dan. The rhythm section sounds like down South, but one is never sure how far down: there's the whiplash Allman Brothers groove, the textbooks Muscle Shoals playing -- plus a touch of mariachi boogie. Here and there appear fragments of Foreigner's ballooning heaviness, Supertramp's fairy-godmother morality, Pink Floyd's synthetics, etc. You can play spot-the-influences as well as I.

- Michael Bloom, Rolling Stone, 12/14/78.

Bonus Review!

The Cruisers hit my enemy list somewhere on Interstate 95. Hook glut, it's called -- hear David Jenkins sing "once you get past the pain" fifty times a day and the pain will be permanent. Even if the next hit is the title cut, a genuine rocker, the band is the '70s Grass Roots, and if Orleans and the Doobie Brothers are the obvious forerunners, that's their cross to bear. It don't mean a thing if it's studio swing. C

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

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