Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Loverboy
Label: Self-released
Released: 2014
Length: 44:14
Rating: 4.5/5
Loverboy, veterans of eighties melodic and AOR rock, forever based in Calgary, smack in the middle of Canada’s Alberta, are putting out the album »Unfinished Business«. This is an album that took a whole 40 years of career to make. Is that even possible? Actually, yes. For this record the band gathered up old recordings that it never used on any official release before, and so put out a kind of compilation that can nonetheless rightfully be counted among the band’s regular studio albums. Why?
The result is fascinating. »Unfinished Business« blasts you straight back to the very start of the band’s career. Listening to the album feels like taking a time machine into the past. The material is arranged totally traditionally. Played traditionally. Detailed, once again, traditionally. It’s packed with infectious musicality and backed by excellent production that treads a cunning path between eighties bombast and the lively, modern feel of an organic sound. The resolve of rock-fired guitars and the inclusion of acoustic guitars sensibly balance out the frilliness of the synth-heavy arrangements, which lean on the typical sonic blankets of the eighties. Mike Reno sounds potent and cheeky, as if he were a dewy 20 years old, passionate in every single moment and therefore ridiculously real. The vocalist keeps his incredible vocal power, his dominant stage presence and plenty of authority at every moment of the record.
The album boasts an extremely colorful palette of tracks, where real rock’ n’ roll rousers full of unbridled »party« time« mischief shake hands, like the opener Fire it Up, followed right away by Countin’ the Nights, or the especially pompous What Makes You So Special, in which the band radiates plenty of positivity and, no matter the weight of the years, a feeling of untamed, youthful rowdiness. The excellent Slave easily belongs in this league too, driven by a proper rhythmic rolling of locomotive wheels, with the glittering lucidity of the keys complemented by the Southern-flavored whine of electric guitars, and the space further crammed with acoustic folk guitars. It’s not hard to pick out in this track the great lucidity that has clung to Loverboy’s dossier throughout their career, along with the energetic rock ‘n’ roll fire inherited from pioneering bands like Slade, Cheap Trick and/or The Who. Speaking of Slade, Loverboy’s eternal inspiration from that band sparks most vividly in the rock ‘n’ roll rascal Doin’ It The Hard Way, where a classic rock ‘n’ roll riff is generously backed by »honky tonk« keys. The album closes with the superb Crack Of The Whip, which will especially delight everyone who demands the high-grade musicality of recognized AOR pomp.
There are two serious tracks on the album too. The first is the acoustic ballad Come Undone, which, according to Loverboy guitarist Paul Dean, was written a good 40 years ago, followed by the dramatic, hard-hitting ballad War Bride, where Loverboy also show an exceptional feel for stringing together dark, atmospheric vistas and where dominant bass lines mark out the basic rhythm along the lines of the famous Eages hit Hotel California. The song develops out of a minor key and definitely departs from the band’s otherwise party-minded musical character. A great detour in mood on the album, then!
Regardless of the fragments lost in time and space that Loverboy used to put together the whole called »Unfinished Business«, the album sounds extremely compact and coherent, and thanks to the incredible organic liveliness of the production, the fruit of the exceptional chemistry developed among the members over 4 decades, it sounds downright authentic and real. The album has a retro sound. Stylistically too. That’s why it will surely make all the band’s longtime followers happy, who have finally got a Loverboy album that can freely be called their 8th studio album, even though at heart it’s a kind of compilation of unreleased material. The number eight doesn’t sound like much given the band’s longevity, but in Loverboy’s case the rule certainly applies first and foremost: »Quality over quantity«. »Unfinished Business« is an album that, had it come out in the mid-eighties, would have thoroughly shaken up the top of the best-selling album charts. Guys, hats off for this truly gorgeous piece of work. Now finally gather the courage to set foot on the soil of the old European continent too, and play us a show here at this end of the world!
Lineup
Mike Reno – vocals
Paul Dean – guitar
Doug Johnson – keyboards
Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve – bass
Matt Frenette – drums
Production
Loverboy
Tracklist
1. Fire Me Up (3:45)
2. Countin’ The Nights (3:50)
3. Ain’t Such A Bad Thing (3:39)
4. Come Undone 4:06 5. Slave (4:41)
5. What Makes You So Special (4:02)
6. War Bride (6:19)
7. Doin’ It The Hard Way (3:31)
8. You Play The Star (4:38)
9. Crack Of The Whip (5:55)
