Pat Benatar - Crimes Of Passion CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

leaden reworkings of hard-rock clichés ("Treat Me Right." "Prisoner of Love") – with a shrill seriousness that rarely varies. She's at her most carnest in "Hell Is for Children," an indictment of child abuse that's as grotesque as it is well meaning. Musically and lyrically ("It's all so confusing/This brutal abusing/They blacken your eyes/And then pologize"), "Hell Is for Children" immediately follows a puff-and-panter called "Hit Me with Your Best Shot." If Pat Benatar misses the irony there, she ought to think twice about rock & roll. (RS 330)

DEBRA RAE COHEN

Aside from inspiring the definitive look for any "babe" in the 1980s, Pat Benatar also delivered a string of undeniably strong AOR records between 1979 and 1982. Crimes of Passion was her second and worked as a blueprint for much of the semi-hard rock that dominated the airwaves in that decade. "Hell is For Children" is the one you may have forgotten about.