Kenny Loggins - Vox Humana CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

by the Pointer Sisters with tricky tattoos by guest percussionist Sheila E. This track alone guarantees some sweaty dance floors this summer.

At its worst, the album apes the overblown productions of the Chicago-Journey-Toto school of bombastic pop kitsch, as on "Forever," cowritten and coproduced by the master of same, David Foster.

There's plenty of middle ground: the floating, falsetto-laced Bee Gees clone, "Love Will Follow"; the mild funk of "At Last"; the sparkling nouveau Motown of "I'll Be There," featuring two of the kids from DeBarge on lovely backups; and the very "Footloose"-like strains of the title cut and "Let There Be Love."

As these comparisons suggest, Vox Humana is most notable for appropriating up-to-the-minute pop-soul production styles. The songs themselves are melodically and lyrically minimal. But it's business as usual for Kenny Loggins, who has always been less a pop original than an expert mimic cannily synthesizing the music of the moment. (RS 449)

DON SHEWEY