FRANKIE ELDORADO (Epic):: Are we fated to suffer a whole glut of these bastard-wave third-stringers during the next few years of chart upheaval? Is this “Frankie Eldorado” character really Eddie Money (same record corp., y’know) refitted by his haberdasher for the 80’s? Maybe you already know this sound? Yeah, here it is, the guitars on “I Know” sound sorta like Kiss, who are hardly the boogermen they once seemed. Say, I do like the mock-disco packaging of this ellpee... R.R.

ROOT BOY SLIM & THE SEX CHANGE BAND W/THE ROOTETTES—Zoom (Ille gal/I.R.S.):: Y’know with a little, luck and some hype, Root Boy could someday be as big ?s Exuma. In the meantime, Zoom is a vast improvement over his first album—it is pleasantly offensive enough for almost all tastes. Highlights here include the chant-along “Dare To Be Fat” (“..She weighs in at 202/That’s fine with me, I’m portly, too”), a ballad (“The Loneliest Rootn in the World”) that sports a vocal hot unlike what Barry White would sound like at 16 r.p.m.s and a hot ode to nodness possibly inspired by Gregg Allman (“Dozin’ and Droolin’”). At last, a life overview that is equally at home in both the gutter (“Quarter Movie On My Mind”) and Ralph Kramden’s living/dining room (“Kids cost too much”). What miraples Shel Silverstein could work with this bozo... B.A.