Huey Lewis may never sing again. It’s a heartbreaking revelation that the GRAMMY-winning icon is still coming to terms with, one made all the more bittersweet by the fact that his voice has perhaps never sounded better than it does today. The problem, it turns out, has nothing to do with his vocal cords, but rather his ears.
“When my hearing goes, it’s like I don’t even exist anymore,” says Lewis, who suffers from a relatively rare inner ear disorder known as Meniere’s Disease. “It leaves me completely isolated, like I’m living inside a cocoon.”
It’s against those considerable odds that Huey Lewis & The News are set to release ‘Weather,’ their first new album of original material in nearly two decades and, quite possibly, their last. Recorded at the band’s own Trout Farm studio in Marin County, California, the collection is as intoxicating as it is unlikely, a timeless blend of rock, soul, and R&B that’s at once playful and sincere, wry and reflective, witty and wise. Lewis sounds weathered to perfection on the album, delivering infectious hooks with ecstasy and authority, and the band’s arrangements are bold and muscular to match, fueled by funky horns, blistering guitars, and dazzling keyboards. Unaware of the ticking clock that would cut their work short, Lewis and his bandmates operated slowly and deliberately in the studio, writing tunes when the muse struck and recording them for the sheer joy of it. The result is a record that captures a legendary group at the peak of their powers, performing with the kind of uninhibited heart and soul that launched them to international superstardom in the 1980s and has sustained them as one of popular music’s most enduring and beloved acts ever since.