Loverboy
Unfinished Business
Loverboy Music
2014
Loverboy return, not long, after their recent rock ‘n roll revival album (which mostly featured re-recordings – and only 3 new songs) and following the rather spectacular, but kind of old enough, “Just Getting Started” which if memory serves correctly came out sometime in 2007 and is their sole other post millennial original material output. “Unfinished Business” as the title suggests, revisits stuff that the band had lying around in various states of completion, either complete demos, or ideas for a song, that were left unused because they were undeveloped at the time for some album and are now, completed and presented for the first time here… the songs spun the entire bands lifetime really from 1974 up to 2014 really, 10 tunes, all in all, from various eras of the band.
The “raiding the vaults” route that The Scorpions also seem to be going for, with their new album, to celebrate their 50 years, not their 40 like Loverboy, seems to be working up to the point, as some minor gems come to the surface, a number of songs, that could have easily been included to the respective albums that “each” was supposedly “tracked” for... and it’s a bit of a mystery that the band never considered them for the next, some people seem to be very economical about their material, while others, apparently not! On the other hand, not every single song is an absolute winner and sourcing the material from different eras and studios, makes the final result, even with all the due care and mastering a little inconsistent, sound/mood wise, but it’s not something that will put you off, if classic 80s Loverboy is something that tickles your fancy, which should be something that should be the case for a good portion of our readership.
The really spirited and fiery opener “You Fire Me Up” is an excellent melodic rocker that really ignites the passion and flame... and get the emotions running wild! Ohhhh... yeah!
“Counting the Nights” that comes next, is so classic sounding that it really boggles me how they never finished it, for some project… it’s really cool, with beautiful breezy “miami” AOR, key/guitars and a slightly cosmopolitan air... with the only negative thing going against it, being the slightly mediocre/demoish production, that hasn’t been fixed much, just augmented to a presentable quality.
And If I was complaining before “Ain’t Such a Bad Thing” comes complete with hiss and crackling… they must have sources this one from some really weathered down tape or something that was really falling apart! It’s a fairly decent light rock number, but all those “issues” are so constant that really distract you a bit from enjoying it... sorry. I understand wanting to include it from a historical perspective, but maybe they could re-record some more stuff, if they had to “complete” stuff to put this out…
“Come Undone” is a slow paced number, a ballad if you will, but it's not really that great, just average fare.
“Slave” is a really fast double bass, fouble time, rocker, that sounds really unusual for Loverboy however, so, I suppose that’s the best description I can give. “Unusual”. Not bad... but not usual!
“What Makes You So Special” is more “like it”… keys, a strong vocal by Reno, a poppy hook and enough guitars and drive to tie it all up… in a nice package… pretty nice!!!
“War Bride” begins with a riff that mocks the wedding march and sounds quite moody and a bit like something that could have been a bit more deep and conceptual, even part of a film, (but a das one) after all the music of Loverboy has been used a lot in films, but usually it would have been either crime/adventures or comedies... This would be fit only for a social/drama. It’s a bit heavy, I guess.
“Doin’ It the Hard Way” is a boogie woogie, honkie tonk, bar number that's fun, but probably done for fun and would probably have felt a little out of place in one of the old albums… well I dunno how it might have fared as a Japanese bonus tho! It’s good fun!
“You Play The Star” has more opening keys than you could shake your finger at, and those really passionate elegy, lyrical vocals from Reno that make me think that it must come from the “early days” possibly debut (?). It’s a song that's pretty good and it could have easily surfaced, one of those “little gems” we mentioned of, earlier!
Last but not least “Crack of the Whip” also sounds “early” but possibly later, however the quality of the recording is lesser and the track itself is not that impressive.
Well I’m not sure if Loverboy are planning to do anymore of this “archive” pillaging, in order to try and produce new albums, but in either case, they could always take the best songs “ie” “Fire Me Up” and re-record them – as a new album… if they have any more good, solid stuff left for maybe another volume. To offer, old, odds and sods, is a bit like offering old rope... at least, you know, “re-record” it first… and sell it as “new”! Nothing wrong with that.
Some really good songs, and some that you could really care about, offered in various sound qualities. If you’re a hardcore fan or a completest, go ahead, otherwise, the earlier albums would be more essential.
It’s not the quality of the material that much (although there are a couple of flukes) but it’s the sound quality that overall disappointed me. The grade also reflects that this, being a bit of an odds and sods compilation and not a “real” new album isn’t as essential a purchase as a new album. If it were properly produced, it would have won a couple of points surely.
The “raiding the vaults” route that The Scorpions also seem to be going for, with their new album, to celebrate their 50 years, not their 40 like Loverboy, seems to be working up to the point, as some minor gems come to the surface, a number of songs, that could have easily been included to the respective albums that “each” was supposedly “tracked” for... and it’s a bit of a mystery that the band never considered them for the next, some people seem to be very economical about their material, while others, apparently not! On the other hand, not every single song is an absolute winner and sourcing the material from different eras and studios, makes the final result, even with all the due care and mastering a little inconsistent, sound/mood wise, but it’s not something that will put you off, if classic 80s Loverboy is something that tickles your fancy, which should be something that should be the case for a good portion of our readership.
The really spirited and fiery opener “You Fire Me Up” is an excellent melodic rocker that really ignites the passion and flame... and get the emotions running wild! Ohhhh... yeah!
“Counting the Nights” that comes next, is so classic sounding that it really boggles me how they never finished it, for some project… it’s really cool, with beautiful breezy “miami” AOR, key/guitars and a slightly cosmopolitan air... with the only negative thing going against it, being the slightly mediocre/demoish production, that hasn’t been fixed much, just augmented to a presentable quality.
And If I was complaining before “Ain’t Such a Bad Thing” comes complete with hiss and crackling… they must have sources this one from some really weathered down tape or something that was really falling apart! It’s a fairly decent light rock number, but all those “issues” are so constant that really distract you a bit from enjoying it... sorry. I understand wanting to include it from a historical perspective, but maybe they could re-record some more stuff, if they had to “complete” stuff to put this out…
“Come Undone” is a slow paced number, a ballad if you will, but it's not really that great, just average fare.
“Slave” is a really fast double bass, fouble time, rocker, that sounds really unusual for Loverboy however, so, I suppose that’s the best description I can give. “Unusual”. Not bad... but not usual!
“What Makes You So Special” is more “like it”… keys, a strong vocal by Reno, a poppy hook and enough guitars and drive to tie it all up… in a nice package… pretty nice!!!
“War Bride” begins with a riff that mocks the wedding march and sounds quite moody and a bit like something that could have been a bit more deep and conceptual, even part of a film, (but a das one) after all the music of Loverboy has been used a lot in films, but usually it would have been either crime/adventures or comedies... This would be fit only for a social/drama. It’s a bit heavy, I guess.
“Doin’ It the Hard Way” is a boogie woogie, honkie tonk, bar number that's fun, but probably done for fun and would probably have felt a little out of place in one of the old albums… well I dunno how it might have fared as a Japanese bonus tho! It’s good fun!
“You Play The Star” has more opening keys than you could shake your finger at, and those really passionate elegy, lyrical vocals from Reno that make me think that it must come from the “early days” possibly debut (?). It’s a song that's pretty good and it could have easily surfaced, one of those “little gems” we mentioned of, earlier!
Last but not least “Crack of the Whip” also sounds “early” but possibly later, however the quality of the recording is lesser and the track itself is not that impressive.
Well I’m not sure if Loverboy are planning to do anymore of this “archive” pillaging, in order to try and produce new albums, but in either case, they could always take the best songs “ie” “Fire Me Up” and re-record them – as a new album… if they have any more good, solid stuff left for maybe another volume. To offer, old, odds and sods, is a bit like offering old rope... at least, you know, “re-record” it first… and sell it as “new”! Nothing wrong with that.
Some really good songs, and some that you could really care about, offered in various sound qualities. If you’re a hardcore fan or a completest, go ahead, otherwise, the earlier albums would be more essential.
It’s not the quality of the material that much (although there are a couple of flukes) but it’s the sound quality that overall disappointed me. The grade also reflects that this, being a bit of an odds and sods compilation and not a “real” new album isn’t as essential a purchase as a new album. If it were properly produced, it would have won a couple of points surely.