OOPS!!
I left something out of my last review-I meant to say the 3rd verse of the song "Keep Pushin'"-the brief guitar licks were left on on the CD!! The vinyl version is much better-at least, the version on the "Decade of Rock 'n' Roll" LP.
Don't buy this CD!!!!
The production is terrible and the songs sound flat. My favorite is "Keep Pushin'" and it just doesn't sound the way I was used to hearing it-so if you have your old vinyl-or the Decade of Rock N Roll LP-you're better off sticking to those versions. Trust me, the songs-not including the sappy "Any Kind of Love" and "(Only A) Summer Love"-are great, but the sound is awful, at least, I was expecting it to sound better than it did.
A shining star anong much dimness
Hey, look: I was born in the seventies but mostly hate them. [bad] disco, [bad] Eagles, [bad] Styx. But if you're going to have to listen to something from that godforsaken decade, pick up Fleetwood Mac's _Rumours_ -- and then pick up this. While they're hardly alike, melody and passion are to be found within both.
_R.E.O._ is a solid outing, with barely a dud among its eight tracks and 33 minutes. In fact, I'd say that those few new-found fans of the band's commercial smash _Hi Infidelty_ should turn here even before they turn to the various decent-yet-flawed greatest-hits compilations.
Sure, we make fun of REO today -- but they left us some great music, and a lot of it is to be found here.
Kevin Cronin Returns With Big Results
Kevin Cronin returns for R.E.O., and the results are great. "Keep Pushin'" can inspire anyone to get in better physical and mental shape 26 years after its release, and it's not the only top-notch song on this album. You also have "Our Time Is Gonna Come", "Lightning", "Breakaway" (another highly inspirational song), and several others. There are a couple of ordinary cuts, but overall, this album, along with YOU CAN TUNE... and NINE LIVES, presented REO as a West Coast version of the great Southern bands of the 70s. Get this one while you can.
LOOK WHO'S BACK
Kevin markes his return to the group,after a three album gap in singing on their recordings, his first one out of the group, his vocals were recorded over, but the songs he wrote were still included. REO is not a great cd. It has some good songs, but the production on this outing is horrible, killing most of the songs. Keep Pushin, and (I Believe) Our Time is Gonna Come, are to very good songs. Any Kind of Love, and Summer Love deserve mention, showing that they are heading toward the "big ballad" days to come. Rest of this disk is weak, and does not show the promise of the Speedwagon ahead.
