LOVERBOY – Keep It Up [Rock Candy remastered] (2021) HQ *0dayrox Exclusive*

After the reissue of LOVERBOY‘s first two albums, Rock Candy Records continue with their fresh remastered version of the Canadians third effort: “Keep It Up“. Despite “Keep It Up” spawned 4 hit singles and went platinum, this is one of the less known Loverboy albums and yes, one of their best. Not only in the songwriting department (with the help of guru Bruce Fairbairn, producing as well), but also in its purest first half of the ’80s AOR sound.
“Keep It Up” continued in the same vein as previous recordings, mixing a potent blend of melodic rock, sophisticated production and contemporary sounds that were just right for the period. It also showed the band working as a tight unit giving every member room to impress, led by the immediately commanding vocals of frontman Mike Reno and Paul Dean’s razor-sharp guitar riffs.

I always divided “Keep It Up” in two parts: the first 4 songs are typical feel-good AOR with the catchy ‘Hot Girls In Love’ being the highlight and the killer ‘Strike Zone’ showing a more ‘rocking’ side.
Then the remaining 5 cuts represents the more consistent material Loverboy ever placed into a single album.

All these are true gems, starting with the superb ‘Queen Of The Broken Hearts’, which in my opinion is the best Loverboy song of all time, a more complex animal than anything recorded by the band before. It’s the surprisingly observant tale of a woman reluctant to fall in love that plays out over a hook-laden midtempo tune that plays off meditative guitar-laden verses against a synth-driven chorus that suddenly accelerates the tempo to an almost dance level.

Then there’s Doug Johnson’s hypnotic keyboard riff in ‘Prime Of Your Life’. I always loved this song and still is one of my ’80s favs. Combining AOR hooks with a lush instrumental treatment, this track is pure class.
You also have an elaborated approach on ‘One Sided Love Affair’ built on stately, almost classical synthesizer riffs, a song which I found very Foreigner-like at their best.
‘Meltdown’ is another tune in this artsy vein: it’s a slow rocker that merge the heaviest guitar riffs on the album with layered synth parts reminiscent of Rush.

“Keep It Up” is Loverboy’s most consistent album. There’s hooks aplenty, but also wonderfully crafted compositions arranged and performed with care. The fact that “Keep It Up” has been quite hard to find in recent years makes this Rock Candy reissue even more appealing.
It’s generally accepted that the essence of a remastered album is the unaltered sound of the original recording, cleaned up, polished and balanced for today’s audio. Rock Candy seem to get this right with “Keep It Up”.
A MUST for anyone who is into ’80s AOR.

01 – Hot Girls In Love
02 – Strike Zone
03 – It’s Never Easy
04 – Chance Of A Lifetime
05 – Queen Of The Broken Hearts
06 – Prime Of Your Life
07 – Passion Pit
08 – One-sided Love Affair
09 – Meltdown

Mike Reno – Lead Vocals
Paul Dean – Guitar, Vocals
Doug Johnson – Keyboards
Scott Smith – Bass, Vocals
Matt Frenette – Drums
Nancy Nash, Maggie Ryder – Background vocals
Jean Piche – Synthesizers

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www.deepdiscount.com/loverboy-keep-it-up/5056321669391