EDDIE ALMOST READY

“JOHN EDDIE.” Columbia. Max Weinberg’s drums pound, the songs build to big, emotional climaxes and the singer’s got a lump in his throat as big as Asbury Park. In other words, here’s Another Jersey Rocker with more than a superficial resemblance to you-know-who. Eddie’s style is simpler and less ambitious: He alternates odes to lost love with chunky, sassy riff-rockers and writes more about youthful lust and heartbreak than the streets of his hometown. Eddie hits the strongest emotional chords when he adopts a mature, reflective stance: “Stranded,” the fiddle-spiked ballad “Buster” and especially “Dream House,” a soaring rocker about unattainable goals. The album is derivative and inconsistent, but its tales of immature passion are apt--there’s enough here to suggest that if he grows as a songwriter, Eddie will have the heart to become more than Another Jersey Rocker.