Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/25/1990
Run Time: 42:42
Sweet hit the peak of their powers on
Desolation Boulevard, a wonderfully lightweight collection of fizzy melodies and big, dumb hooks. Essentially, the album consists of three dynamic singles buoyed by a bunch of filler, but those singles --
"Ballroom Blitz," "The 6-Teens," and
"Fox on the Run" -- are addictive slices of bubblegum glam rock. And the filler is ridiculously silly and enjoyable, with
"Sweet F.A.," "I Wanna Be Committed," and
"No You Don't" sounding like a kind of bizarre prototype for
the Ramones' punky bubblegum (only without the irony, of course). Although the filler is relatively strong, there are a number of weak patches on
Desolation Boulevard, but it remains an intoxicatingly fun record and one that sounds surprisingly fresh, even with all of its kitschy '70s production techniques.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide