Sometimes You Win is where
Dr. Hook went all-in on polyester leisure suits, ditching the
Shel Silverstein material (the songwriter decided he had become bored with writing songs) and delivering something close to a soft rock-disco masterpiece. Bad taste is in full effect -- the cover itself is a gaudy horror show of dice with crying eyes, a painting that wouldn't even make sense when slathered on black velvet -- but part of the charm of this era of
Dr. Hook is how ridiculous their disco songs are, whether they're bouncing their way through a laundry list like "What Do You Want?" or proclaiming the "Love Monster" is on the loose. But what works on
Sometimes You Win is that the two country songs are buried in the back (the rollicking "Mountain Mary" and ballad "Help Me Mama"), leaving the rest of the record as super-slick soft rock and glitter-ball disco for audiences who never liked R&B. For some hazy reason lost to time, "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" is recycled from
Pleasure & Pain, so this has three big hits, with the other two being "Better Love Next Time" and "Sexy Eyes," singles that give a good indication of the feel of the rest of the record but, fortunately, the rest of
Sometimes You Win is nearly as much fun as the hits. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine