Kim Carnes

At least Carnes didn't resort to a Bette Davis Eyes follow-up on the order of, say, Joan Crawford Mouth or Clark Gable Ears or Bob Hope Nose. Instead, there are in this LP 10 energetic pop rock tunes, which Carnes wrote with husband Dave Ellingson and Duane Hitchings, and her own The Thrill of the Grill (about a short-order cook in an all-night café who is "half crazed—dizzy dazed—and waylayed" by a customer—"his hair was slick, he was slicker"). Carnes has some excesses, though, notably the screechy vocal contortions at the end of Looker and what must be an inside joke, a backup chorus called "The Hate Boys," who chant "hate, hate, hate" on the title cut. Carnes' gritty voice is often magnetizing, though, and her own lyrics are still nothing if not clever; in Take It on the Chin, she writes, "I can be a fool all by myself/ I can get along without your help."