Loverboy - Rock N' Roll Revival

So Loverboy thought it a good idea to re-record some of their live favorites and hits. That is where they entire project went wrong. The band sound horrible attempting recreate the greatness that was "The Kid Is Hot Tonight" the energy that went into the raw youthfulness of the song is gone and gone far away. Mike Reno can't even keep time with the vocal cadence anymore and sings it completely different ruining the songs sing-a-long fun.

As each re-recorded song plays I can't understand why they didn't spend the money just doing covers of other bands songs instead of their own. How about pulling out say "Nobody" by Doucette or "The Whole Worlds Going Crazy" by April Wine both songs would sound good sung by Mike. This kind of crap just doesn't cut it in a world where selling music is a hard road to hoe.

The band continue to screw up their classics with probably the worst version I've ever heard of "Queen Of The Broken Hearts". Considering I've heard it covered by a lot of bar bands back when it was a hit. But the absolute worst thing about this album is that they attempted "Working For The Weekend" and they don't even get the lyrics right. Now c'mon at least get the damn lyrics straight.

Overall the production is majorly compressed specifically in the over the top drums the nearly derail the album all on their own. But Paul Dean who's such a nice guy and I hate to be negative about because he's always been nice to me has put his guitars through a processor that just emlinates anything organic about the re-recording. I could accept this if they would have maybe done funky acoustic versions like the excellent Helix album Smash Hits...Unplugged! which was over the moon fantastic.

Now with the new songs the story is actually a lot different. Remove a shit ton of the kick drums on "Heartbreaker" and this song is really good Loverboy. I'd also have liked to hear more echo and some delay on Mike's vocals with huge background vocal harmonies added to it. The song is a good song and Bob Rock's production is not very good which is odd because he's so consistent. The mid-tempo power ballad-esque "No Tomorrow" is again a good song that with a remix might be a comeback hit for the band because it's really that good. But the title track which is great outside of the pathetic chorus is another story. The song is strong until the break into 'Rock N' Roll Revival blah blah blah It's All About Survival' OMG it is too cheesy but I freaking love the verses to death it is too bad that the chorus is so cheesy. I'm sure with more listens I'll get used to it and just like it because the rest is so great.

If the band could have just written more originals and created an E.P. and left the cover songs of their old material nowhere to be found it could have been something special. Good thing is Mike's turned his weight issues around and has been killing it live so I can only hope the band can put out some more new material with better production and continue to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative as the old song said. Lastly the album art is excellent and take note new artists this is something most of you are terrible with so learn from the old dogs.