Everybody's Got To

Everybody’s Got To further streamlined the approach Kuepper took with his previous solo album, Rooms Of The Magnificent. The songs are direct, nudging closer yet toward pop mores — blistering brass arrangements, swooning backing vocals, and the closest he really came to rapprochement with the glossy, booming production sound that marred so many eighties albums. There are some excellent songs here, like “No Skin Off Your Nose” and “Standing In The Cold, In The Rain,” though some of the other material gets lost in the production haze. It’s still a great album — Kuepper seems incapable of anything less — but of all his eighties material, Everybody’s Got To suffers for its period-piece designs. You still need it, though, for the masterful songwriting.