SUMMER LP ROUNDUP : THE FIXX MIXES IT UP

“WALKABOUT.” The Fixx. MCA. To say that this is the British band’s best album is not saying much, considering the vapidity of the previous three collections. This LP is only relatively more listenable, but on the whole, “Walkabout” has a tighter, tenser feeling in the writing and playing than one would expect, and at its best the Fixx transcend mere tolerance. Rupert Hine’s production may be the key to much of the appeal.

The LP’s uninventive slices of quirky new wave, tentative funk and Bowie impersonations could have been worse. And Cy Curnin’s emotive vocal excesses would have been even more excessive without someone’s steadying hand this time around. Not a bad album, but one title here--”Chase the Fire”--sums up the Fixx, which seems to be warming itself around the creative fires rather than blazing with them.