REO Speedwagon was back in '84 with
Wheels are Turnin' and indeed the wheels were still turning. They may not have been able to attain the giddy heights they achieved with their 1980 release
Hi Infidelity. It was an impossibly high bar, but REO Speedwagon had enough momentum to be able to crank out double platinum albums back to back. First with
Good Trouble and again with
Wheels are Turnin'.
I saw the video once for the lead off single "I Do' Wanna Know" and thought it was hilarious ... I never saw it again, and I don't think I heard it very often on the radio. However when they dropped "Can't Fight This Feeling" was a huge hit and seemed to be on the radio all the time. It's a song I still like. Heck, if you're going to write a syrupy sucky ballad this is how you do it.
Gary Richrath seemed to revel in laying down rock solos on everything the band recorded. Slow song. Cool. Time to melt a face or two. One rock solo comin' up. Fast song? Sure, let's rock it up. One solo comin' up. Honestly it was one of the things that helped keep the band's rock credibility badge. Kevin was a really good songwriter, and his voice despite being kind of wimpy also packed a hell of a wallop. It was the oil and water that when shaken, not stirred, was the band's secret sauce ... actually dressing, but sauce sounds better.
Back in the day I liked REO Speedwagon, but didn't really like them enough to buy their albums. I was looking through my old list of albums (yes, I kept a list ... this shouldn't be a surprise) and the albums I did have were 1978's double platinum
You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish, and
Good Trouble. I was certain I had
Hi Infidelity, but apparently not - the memory I have of having it is when I borrowed my friend Mike's copy for a bit until he came and took it back (I have a copy now, just sayin'). I think the point I was trying to make was that I liked them but I didn't necessarily have a lot of their stuff. So despite liking the hits on the radio, the hooks weren't set deep enough to reel me in and get me to buy the record. Of course if I was to find more of their back catalogue in the bins, and the price was right, there's a pretty good chance I'd expand my collection by an album or two ... or more.
It took four decades and a wee bit for me to pick up this copy, and it's been a lot of fun. Hearing the deeper cuts is what makes or breaks an album as a listening experience for me. REO Speedwagon always seemed to me to be a rather delicate balancing act between Kevin and Gary, but Neal Doughty and Bruce Hall contributed songs, good songs too to the album. I was expecting more from the title track. If you're going to name the album after a song you'd think there was more of a spark. It's good, but not exceptional. The big singles were big singles for a reason, and they're enough to make the album worthwhile. They really are so good. I was surprised at how much I liked "One Lonely Night" what an awesome song. I have to say I also got into "I Do' Wanna Know" more than I thought I would. But (I know I shouldn't start a sentence with
but, but ...) there aren't really any hidden gems here, although "Thru the Window" comes really close. Having said that, the album is cohesive and there aren't any clunkers to keep things from rollin' along.
REO Speedwagon was never an '80s band, but they managed to ride their brand of polished rock about as far as a couple of their contemporaries did: Journey and Foreigner specifically. It would be three years between releases, and when the band dropped
Life as We Know It in '87 it would be their last gold album, and also the be the last album to feature Gary and drummer co-producer Alan Gratzer.
It was a hell of a run but eventually things just stopped turnin'.
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