Much like the TV series that spawned this collection, Cleveland Rocks! has a shambling, awkward, working class charm.

Musically, it's all over the place -- there's everything from Iggy Pop's protopunk classic "Lust For Life" to Drew Carey's depressed snippet of Sinatra's "High Hopes" to a live performance of Joe Walsh's old warhorse "Rocky Mountain Way" with guest piano and vocals by Little Richard, of all people, to the neo-barber shop quartet sound of "Moon Over Parma" to the sleaze rock show tune "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Yet, all this diversity somehow taps into Carey's offbeat view of life and death in lower middle management, and the Vogues' "Five O'Clock World" is a nearly perfect representation of his sardonic viewpoint of the workplace while the President Of The United States Of America's remake of Ian Hunter's "Cleveland Rocks" (Hunter's version is included, too) captures the desperate need to let loose after days in the mindnumbing rat race. (7/98)