Street Machine

Street Machine is the fourth album on which Sammy Hagar takes up the guitar and pulls together linear rock and roll and a high, breaking-through vocal. The songs carry speed while uniting thick riffs and accessible melody, and the band’s playing advances tightly throughout. His solo-era strength appears clearly. From the drive of the opener “Growing Pains” and the wildness of “Plain Jane” to the drive of “Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)” and the heat of “This Planet’s on Fire,” the songs convey a late-1970s American-hard-rock openness, while the rising feel of the closing “Straight to the Top” lends the album a positive drive. It is a record that well expresses Hagar’s strengths, holding both a sweat-soaked live feel and the strength of the singing. It feels good that it wins on speed, heat and accessible hooks rather than flashy decoration. It is a powerful, fulfilling rock-and-roll record from the period when his momentum as a solo artist grew.