Artist: REO Speedwagon
Title: Hi Infidelity
Year released: 1980 (Well, at least that is the copyright date.)
Label: Epic (Manufacturer) CBS Inc. (Copyright)
Genre: I call it "Light Rock with some Country/Western"
LP---Vinyl---Stereo, FE 36844
REVIEW:
Ten Songs...
Don't Let Him Go---Uptempo, good to very good musicianship, lyrics and music an acceptable match.
Keep On Loving You---Mid-tempo, contrapuntal rhythms, very good musicianship. This was a big hit at the time of release.
Follow My Heart---Minor key; good drive, very good musicianship.
In Your Letter---A 1--6m--4--5 variation, slightly uptempo. Good musicianship.
Take It On The Run---Another big hit for the band. Country/Western-influenced blues flavor. Good musicianship.
Tough Guys---Uptempo, Good musicianship, weak lyrics. Cute intro.
Out of Season---Uptempo, good musicianship. Lyrics and music do not match. Musically clumsy, disjoint, as though two or three musical ideas were cut up and spliced together.
Shakin' It Loose---Hard-rock lyrics beg for hard rock music but do not get it. Good drive, solid vocal, but the rest of it is too clean and restrained, too refined. Cleanest vocal on the album.
Someone Tonight---Good-to-very-good musicianship. Music fits the lyrics. Vocals fit the lyrics and the music. Good drive
I Wish You Were There---Ballad-like waltz. Very good musicianship. Lyrics, vocals, music all fit. Maybe the best song on the album, hits notwithstanding.
OVERALL...
Produced by Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath, and Kevin Beamish; co-produced by Alan Gratzer.
Too many producing producers over-produced the whole produced album and especially the produced vocals: Too much reverb, too much electronic chorus effect, or whatever they did to make it sound like the lead vocalist was always singing with four or five of himself. (The guy's voice can stand on its own.) Too many effects on the instruments, too.
The album sounded amazingly clean*. Virtually no surface noise, no static at all.
Lots of studio tinkering (reverb and so on) made it impossible to render any judgment on balance, soundstage, or imaging. The effects got in the way of the music (both instruments and voices), a shortcoming mercilessly revealed by my MA 282e cartridge/stylus.
Stereo was evident; however, I do not consider it appropriate to offer judgments on soundstage and imaging when in fact some engineer has decided "where" various voices and instruments should be "located" in the soundstage.
(*After three decades! My Son had rescued it---as part of a stack of about 50 LPs---from a trashed apartment! No liner, just the album cover for protection!)
An uneven album at best. A little too refined, controlled, and restrained for music that wants to rock out a little. The constant reverb became somewhat annoying. Moderately entertaining. I found myself willing to listen to the whole album and was not bothered enough by any track to get up and move the tonearm to the next track. I think one would have to be a serious REO Speedwagon fan to want to own this album or even to hear the whole thing more than once.
I hear enough of REO Speedwagon on the FM to more than satisfy my maximum monthly requirement and would not pay for a copy of this album in any format---but that is just me. Your musical tastes my vary...
EQUIPMENT USED IN REVIEW:
Receiver: Onkyo TX-8500 Mk II (160 W/CH)
Turntable: Dual CS 620 Q Direct Drive equipped with the Dual Ultra Low Mass tonearm
Cartridge/Stylus: MicroAcoustics MA 282e (Sorry; I cannot remember what they called the stylus... Elliptical? Hyperelliptical?)
Headphones: Panasonic VMSS RP-HT970 (Just to keep room effects out of the equation. The sound quality these headphones offer is probably as good as average speakers. These headphones offer some bass-boost effects that I simply do not use.)
Title: Hi Infidelity
Year released: 1980 (Well, at least that is the copyright date.)
Label: Epic (Manufacturer) CBS Inc. (Copyright)
Genre: I call it "Light Rock with some Country/Western"
LP---Vinyl---Stereo, FE 36844
REVIEW:
Ten Songs...
Don't Let Him Go---Uptempo, good to very good musicianship, lyrics and music an acceptable match.
Keep On Loving You---Mid-tempo, contrapuntal rhythms, very good musicianship. This was a big hit at the time of release.
Follow My Heart---Minor key; good drive, very good musicianship.
In Your Letter---A 1--6m--4--5 variation, slightly uptempo. Good musicianship.
Take It On The Run---Another big hit for the band. Country/Western-influenced blues flavor. Good musicianship.
Tough Guys---Uptempo, Good musicianship, weak lyrics. Cute intro.
Out of Season---Uptempo, good musicianship. Lyrics and music do not match. Musically clumsy, disjoint, as though two or three musical ideas were cut up and spliced together.
Shakin' It Loose---Hard-rock lyrics beg for hard rock music but do not get it. Good drive, solid vocal, but the rest of it is too clean and restrained, too refined. Cleanest vocal on the album.
Someone Tonight---Good-to-very-good musicianship. Music fits the lyrics. Vocals fit the lyrics and the music. Good drive
I Wish You Were There---Ballad-like waltz. Very good musicianship. Lyrics, vocals, music all fit. Maybe the best song on the album, hits notwithstanding.
OVERALL...
Produced by Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath, and Kevin Beamish; co-produced by Alan Gratzer.
Too many producing producers over-produced the whole produced album and especially the produced vocals: Too much reverb, too much electronic chorus effect, or whatever they did to make it sound like the lead vocalist was always singing with four or five of himself. (The guy's voice can stand on its own.) Too many effects on the instruments, too.
The album sounded amazingly clean*. Virtually no surface noise, no static at all.
Lots of studio tinkering (reverb and so on) made it impossible to render any judgment on balance, soundstage, or imaging. The effects got in the way of the music (both instruments and voices), a shortcoming mercilessly revealed by my MA 282e cartridge/stylus.
Stereo was evident; however, I do not consider it appropriate to offer judgments on soundstage and imaging when in fact some engineer has decided "where" various voices and instruments should be "located" in the soundstage.
(*After three decades! My Son had rescued it---as part of a stack of about 50 LPs---from a trashed apartment! No liner, just the album cover for protection!)
An uneven album at best. A little too refined, controlled, and restrained for music that wants to rock out a little. The constant reverb became somewhat annoying. Moderately entertaining. I found myself willing to listen to the whole album and was not bothered enough by any track to get up and move the tonearm to the next track. I think one would have to be a serious REO Speedwagon fan to want to own this album or even to hear the whole thing more than once.
I hear enough of REO Speedwagon on the FM to more than satisfy my maximum monthly requirement and would not pay for a copy of this album in any format---but that is just me. Your musical tastes my vary...
EQUIPMENT USED IN REVIEW:
Receiver: Onkyo TX-8500 Mk II (160 W/CH)
Turntable: Dual CS 620 Q Direct Drive equipped with the Dual Ultra Low Mass tonearm
Cartridge/Stylus: MicroAcoustics MA 282e (Sorry; I cannot remember what they called the stylus... Elliptical? Hyperelliptical?)
Headphones: Panasonic VMSS RP-HT970 (Just to keep room effects out of the equation. The sound quality these headphones offer is probably as good as average speakers. These headphones offer some bass-boost effects that I simply do not use.)