Loverboy Get Lucky CD

With their second album, 1981's GET LUCKY, the members of Loverboy followed the famous old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The hard candy-pop direction of their first album is mined once again, but this time the songwriting is even stronger and the sticky sweet hooks somehow catchier.

Besides spawning such radio hits as the uptempo "Working for the Weekend" and "Lucky Ones," Loverboy enjoyed even bigger success thanks to its videos constantly airing on the then-new music television channel MTV. One of the more unforgettable (and now rather goofy) images of early MTV remains Loverboy singer Mike Reno posing for the camera, sporting a headband.

After making a promising start with their self-titled debut, Loverboy hit the big time in 1981 with Get Lucky. This canny combination of AOR hooks and new wave production gloss boasts some memorable radio-ready tunes but isn't as solid an album as its success might lead one to believe. The best tunes on Get Lucky were the songs that became its hit singles: "Working for the Weekend" is a party anthem that blends some gutsy hard rock guitar riffs with a synthesizer-drenched new wave rhythm arrangement to become a huge hit, while "The Lucky Ones" layers clever lyrics about the jealousy that success inspires in others over a song that mixes pomp rock grandeur with a punchy AOR arrangement full of gutsy yet slick guitar riffs. Loverboy got additional airplay with "When It's Over," a moody power ballad that boasts a show-stoppingly emotional vocal performance from Mike Reno, and "Take Me to the Top," a sleek midtempo piece built on a hypnotic synthesizer arrangement. The rest of Get Lucky isn't as impressive as these hits because it relies on filler to pad the album out: "Gangs in the Street" is an overwrought song about street tensions whose lyrics are melodramatic to the point of being unintentionally funny, and "Emotional" is a sloppy bar band jam with annoyingly sexist lyrics and an awful vocal from Paul Dean. Due to this overabundance of less than stellar tracks, Get Lucky fails to be as consistent a listen as Loverboy or Keep It Up, but offers enough solid tracks to please the group's fans and AOR fanatics. Other listeners may want to check out the album's highlights on a compilation before picking it up. [This 25th Anniversary Edition has been remastered and features four previously unreleased demos.] ~ Donald A. Guarisco

Liner Note Author: Andrew McNeice.

Recording information: Mushroom Studios.

Photographer: David Kennedy.

Loverboy: Paul Dean (guitar, background vocals); Doug Johnson (keyboards); Scott Smith (bass guitar); Matthew Frenette, Mike Reno.

Personnel: Mike Reno (vocals); Paul Dean (guitar, background vocals); Doug Johnson (keyboards); Matthew Frenette (drums); Nancy Nash (background vocals).