Journey Home (1991)

Will to Power is the duo — producer-Svengali Bob Rosenberg and singer Elin Michaels — that had a fluke 1988 hit with an improbable medley of Peter Frampton's chirpy AM hit ''Baby, I Love Your Way'' and Lynyrd Skynyrd's schlock FM elegy ''Free Bird.'' Funny, sure — but the thing went to No. 1! Now the band — proudly named for noted problem child Friedrich Nietszche's dictum ''the first result of happiness is a sense of power'' — is back with record number two. Again the material is predominantly colorless, pop songs (by Rosenberg) with unimaginably banal lyrics: ''Fly away bird/I know you can fly so high/Got to get away/And to know the reason why.'' Besides a cover of 10cc's ''I'm Not in Love'' (now headed toward the Top 10), the only track on Journey Home that stands out is the monstrous ''Koyaanisquatsi,'' a treatise set to a dance beat. The song's title (Hopi for ''life out of balance'') comes from a well-known art film; the lyrics — portentous quotations about power and freedom and such — are intoned by Rosenberg, who adds some of his own great thoughts: ''Down with the new age/Up with reality.'' The song is uniquely, sweepingly misconceived, a definite low point on what is otherwise an utterly undistinguished record. D+

You Might Also Like

• Music News EW's list of top 20 one-hit wonders