Saturday, August 31, 2013

A Record a Week: Loverboy - s/t



















SIDE 1.
THE KID IS HOT TONITE
TURN ME LOOSE
ALWAYS ON MY MIND
LADY OF THE 80'S

SIDE 2.
LITTLE GIRL
PRISSY PRISSY
TEENAGE OVERDOSE
DOA
IT DON'T MATTER

Two things popped into my mind when I first listened to this: 1. Is this a greatest hits album? and 2. The spelling 'tonite' dates back as far as 1980?

Well, 1. no and 2. apparently.  I also did not know they were Canadian and that they were able to predict what a 'Lady of the 80's' was right off the bat in 1980. I suppose that's possible though, since they seemed to have most of what the musical style of the 1980's was all trapped into this record. A little bit of new wave and a little bit of rock, the rest of the record (after the first two songs) sounds like songs that Elvis Costello made work for him or like anything else that power rock bands did around that time. These days, you can find them playing casinos and fairs and festivals that hold on to the past (with bands like Whitesnake, Poison, etc.)

Only somewhat related, but one time I was working sound at a festival with Alan Frew and it was really sad. His drum skin said both 'AF' and 'Glass Tiger' as he played songs from the distant past mixed in with newere, less successful works. I imagine a Loverboy to feel a lot like that as you see them up there in middle-aged clothing playing the same songs they have for 30 years (or worse, if they dressed the same as the back of this album).

All that aside, The Kid is Hot Tonite & Turn Me Loose are pretty great right? I mean for what they are? They remind me of Footloose and Top Gun, even though my research says that neither appeared in either of those films (though apparently a later song Heaven in Your Eyes did appear in Top Gun, so bonus points for that?) A pretty good career start for a band that managed to squeeze out a few more hits and still live off them a few decades later.

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