High Wire

You have to admire this guy. As an Isley, he’s young (the Isley Brothers started in 1959; he joined them in 1969), but in pop music terms he’s a grizzled pro.

And still he’s optimistic, almost painstakingly so. He calls one of his songs here ”Rising from the Ashes.” And in the title cut he says he’s changing from a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Meanwhile, in his better songs, the rhythm bubbles and the voice and guitar soar. The trouble is that the better songs are relatively few. And the transparent sincerity gets to be a bit much.