Foot Loose & Fancy Free [Import], Rod Stewart, CD

Kicking off with the swagger and machismo of one of the quintessential 70's anthems, "Hot Legs", Foot Loose And Fancy Free is a blistering joyride, a swaggering period piece that, like all of Rod's best work, immerses itself in the prevalent style of the time- by 1977, funk-tinged rock was all the rage, and Foot Loose is a carnival of wah-wah guitars ("You're Insane"), epic arrangements ("You Just Keep Me Hanging On"), and unabashed earnestness (the nostalgic and confessional "I Was Only Joking".) Foot Loose's greatest contribution to the Stewart canon has to be "You're in My Heart", a timely, sensitive classic that stirs in just enough breathy whimsy to it's strangely down-home feel (bluegrass violins and U.K. football references not being one of your more common pairings in pop music) to create yet another milestone in Stewart's varied and timeless career.