Pop Stars : **** Great Balls of Fire : *** Good Vibrations : ** Maybe Baby : * Running on Empty

JOE ELY

“Dig All Night.” Hightone. ***

Cross your fingers that the bureaucrats up in Sacramento never get hold of this record--with as much horsepower as Ely has packed into it, they would probably insist that it be subject to the state’s mandatory seat belt law. Take the opening tune, “Settle for Love”: The long, tall Texan throws out the challenge “You say you want drama? / I’ll give you drama,” then backs it up with enough songwriting punch and vocal voltage to knock the socks off a rooster. The title song, long a staple of Ely’s live shows, is a riveting plea for individual responsibility that’s as taut and insightful as anything Springsteen has written. Indeed, Ely shares with the Boss a deeply ingrained respect for the uncompromising individualists in the world who settle for nothing less than the real thing--in whatever personal, social or political form it might take. When it comes to hard-rockin’ music, Joe Ely be the real thing.