Hi Infidelity

by

REO Speedwagon

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"Hi Infidelity" is the quintessential album from REO Speedwagon. This marked the zenith for the band, topping the charts for 15 weeks in 1981 and containing four top 40 singles.

"Keep On Loving You" was the consummate radio friendly power ballad (it was their first #1 song on the charts). It served as a precursor for their mainstream sound that was to follow them into the early half of the decade (They would top the charts one more time in 1984 with "Can't Fight This Feeling" from "Wheels Are Turning" album). In 2000, they assembled a collection of their greatest ballads.

The band had been recording for about a decade when they reached the masses with this album. This album has it share of upbeat rockers. The album opens with the hard driving, "Don't Let Him Go" (#36) as well as the top five "Take It On The Run.(#5)" The track, "In Your Letter" has a retro 1950's feel to it. It also made the pop charts at the time (#14).

"Tough Guys" is one of the most relentless tracks on the album. It rocks from start to finish and interestingly enough, begins with a vocal segment from the television program, "The Little Rascals." (Madonna would employ this technique in her song "White Heat," which included a spoken prologue from James Cagney in her tribute to him on her 1986 album "True Blue.")

"Follow My Heart," "Out Of Season," and "Someone Tonight" also serve as competent, well-crafted tunes. The one track I tend to not enjoy as much is "Shakin' It Loose."(Don't get me wrong-it is not a bad track; it just sounds too generic. It could have been recorded by Styx or Journey or 38 Special!). Nevertheless, there is a continuity to the album and it is absolutely clear why this album graced the charts for well over one year.

The album closes with the highly sentimental "I Wish You Were There," one of my favorite ballads on the collection. (This would be an excellent tune that could wind up on a soundtrack to a love story with a "coming of age" theme to it.)

Digitally remastered, this 20th anniversary collection contains the original artwork (including the classic album cover), and the complete lyrics to all ten songs. "Hi Infidelity" includes a well-balanced mix of hard rocking and mid-tempto ballads. It is an absolute must in any music library whether one is a fan of classic rock or infectious, coherent, pop music.

My sister used to love Bobby Sherman, but she hated the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Steely Dan. I love those groups--well, Zeppelin marginally--so she decided that when I was a 7th grader she would force me to listen to Styx, John Cougar Mallencamp, Tom Petty, Journey, and Foreigner. I still like SOME Styx, can't understand Mallencamp because he mumbles but he's kind of cool, Tom Petty is a Dylan/McGuinn wannabe which makes him semi-cool, Foreigner was good for a few decent songs, and Journey? Don't worry, this is about REO right now, but they rank very low on my list as well.

Okay, so she throws REO in my face. I heard "Time for Me to Fly," and was only marginally moved. She made me listen to their Tuna Fish album, basically an embarrassing midwest take on "They're OUR bands, and they ROCK!" Yeah, well, couldn't I just have listened to Kansas' earlier albums, a much wiser choice by far for audibly superior reasons? Oh, no. I had to listen to an album with a bad name about fish and pretend I liked the next best thing to Boston's percy pop defecation. The only songs I like by REO are "Keep Pushin'," "Roll with the Changes," and a few cuts from 9 Lives. High Infidelity is another matter altogether, and it signalled the end of any half-hearted promise the group showed to begin with.

Chock full of sickeningly hookey power pop aimed at mostly young popular girls I attended school with so they could dance and do "other things" with their whipped boyfriends who pretended that was actual rock, the album received so much undeserved airplay during my freshman and sophomore years that I simply wanted to puke. On the bright side, it beat having to hear The Knack, a group that was touted by some joker as the next Beatles and definitely worse. Still, you can only hear songs like "Keep On Lovin' You," "Take it On the Run," and every other song that this album inspired on subsequently sappy excuses for rock albums before you feel like the guy with the gun in the bell tower. Also, what a nice image, pushing the idea of being unfaithful to your partner by the biggest bunch of pansy rockers to come out of my home area.

Before you go and look up my reviews, I am the first to say I love all kinds of music, but certain genres should not be oozing so far off the mark as CBS pushed REO. Because of this album, the band never regained what credibility they might have gained as a respectable rock band. I may like some questionable stuff, but I know the difference between rock, jazz, pop, and a band that sells out to a point where they've damaged their clout with even the most open-minded of music lovers. Certain genres can be quite wide and open, but others have certain boundaries that one should not step over lest they place their feet in some nasty refuse. With High Infidelity and its lethal formula of "naughty," sugary pop with a few great hooks and chords passing as rock, boasting one of the most irritating lead vocalists of all time in Kevin Cronin, they most assuredly deserve a place right alongside Triumph as potentially great bands who decided to wander into the minefield of corporate cowpies.