The party line on Graham Parker & The Rumour's third album, Stick to Me, is that it's a letdown from the one-two punch of the previous pair. That rampant misconception is perhaps based on the presence of a string section on the opening title track and the Springsteen-like expansiveness of the seven-minute epic "The Heat in Harlem." But the fact is that, song for song, Stick to Me is rawer and more intensely rocking than either of its highly regarded predecessors. Parker's snarl had increasingly more in common with that of Johnny Rotten, whose Sex Pistols had released their debut the same month as this record. Steve Goulding's drums and the guitars of Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont also bear a greater degree of bite. Lyrically, Parker was at his most vituperative on tunes like "Clear Head" and "Soul on Ice," growling out his gripes about the world at large. The R&B influence of the earlier albums is less overt, but it still surfaces on "The New York Shuffle" and a fire-breathing cover of the Ann Peebles classic "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down."