by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Sweet hit the peak of their powers on Desolation Boulevard, a wonderfully lightweight collection of fizzy melodies and big, dumb hooks. Essentially, the album consists of three dynamic singles buoyed by a bunch of filler, but those singles -- &Ballroom Blitz,& &The 6-Teens,& and &Fox on the Run& -- are addictive slices of bubblegum glam rock. And the filler is ridiculously silly and enjoyable, with &Sweet F.A.,& &I Wanna Be Committed,& and &No You Don't& sounding like a kind of bizarre prototype for the Ramones' punky bubblegum (only without the irony, of course). Although the filler is relatively strong, there are a number of weak patches on Desolation Boulevard, but it remains an intoxicatingly fun record and one that sounds surprisingly fresh, even with all of its kitschy '70s production techniques.