Welcome to the Neighborhood

After reheating his moldy career with Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, Meat Loaf loses his old thrust, flouncing back into faceless ’80s corporate pop rock. To his credit, the songs on Welcome to the Neighborhood retain a cynical catchiness, and his vocals have the perverse appeal of a bad actor twitching through a death scene. If only schmaltz of such magnitude had been matched to a sound as hideously unique.