REO SPEEDWAGON
JAPANESE SINGLES COLLECTION
SONY MUSIC JAPAN Out now
Living in the UK in the 1980s, we didn’t hear much REO Speedwagon. They had three Top 20 hits with Keep On Loving You in 1980, Take It On The Run in 1981 and Can’t Fight This Feeling in 1984. None of my friends or acquaintances particularly liked them and they were vastly overshadowed in the UK by Foreigner and Toto. Hi Fidelity got to No. 6 in the album charts and was on the charts for 29 weeks but the following year’s follow-up, Good Trouble,lasted only seven weeks on the charts and peaked at No. 29. With all that in mind, I was wondering what - if anything - I had missed as I put the disc in the tray and pressed play.
Well it seems I have missed quite a lot as it turns out but before I get into the songs, a word about the audio. I have a decent components system that I play music on and I put it on the same settings at the start of every review, play a few tracks by other bands before playing the review disc so I can judge the mastering and I must say, this is the first time I have had to turn the master volume down at the start; this...disc...is...loud! It is also an eyeopener for I suspect many people like me who thought they were just a weepy love-ballad band as they can Rock and guitar solo with the best of their peers. In fact, the level of musicianship surprised me as did the amount of reverb used on some of the original recordings but thankfully that amount doesn’t spoil anything; it just gives the tracks a vast atmosphere.
Covering all their Japanese singles from 1980 - 90, this, Sony’s 7th in their Japanese singles series, is a great representation of REO Speedwagon for all us casual fans and it has enough rarities on there for the fanatics as well including fourteen promotional videos on the accompanying DVD that have never been released on DVD before anywhere in the world. The 56 page booklet has full page full colour reproductions of all the singles jackets and sold at the eye-blinking price of ¥3,300 including tax, I doubt there will ever be a better compilation released of this underrated in the UK band.
DISC 1 CD
1 Roll With The Changes
2 Time For Me To Fly
3 In Your Letter
4 Take It On The Run
5 Don’t Let Him Go
6 Keep On Loving You
7 Keep The Fire Burning
8 I Do Wanna Know
9 Can’t Fight This Feeling
10 One Lonely Night
11 Live Every Moment
12 Wherever You’re Goin’
13 That Ain’t Love
14 In My Dreams
15 Here With Me
16 I Don’t Want To Lose You
17 Love Is A Rock
18 The Heart Survives
19 Face The Music (Kevin Cronin solo release)
DISC 2 DVD
1 Roll With The Changes †
2 Time For Me To Fly †
3 In Your Letter †
4 Take It On The Run †
5 Don’t Let Him Go †
6 Keep On Loving You*
7 Keep The Fire Burning *
8 I Do Wanna Know †
9 Can’t Fight This Feeling
10 One Lonely Night †
11 Live Every Moment †
12 That Ain’t Love †
13 In My Dreams †
14 Variety Tonight †
15 Here With Me †
16 I Don’t Want To Lose You †
17 Live It Up †
† World first on DVD
*First time on DVD in Japan
KENNY LOGGINS
JAPANESE SINGLES COLLECTION
SONY MUSIC JAPAN Out now
Extraordinary. That is the word I would use to describe this set which contains a CD, a DVD and a 56 (yes, fifty-six!) page colour booklet, all for just ¥3,300. Sony Music Japan have released a series of these collections, each one with same love and care, each one a delight for the fans and especially us video collectors who now finally have the complete videos to hand without any trimmed ends or annoying onscreen notes from over-enthusiastic TV producers. Time to start throwing away those old VHS tapes; the complete collections are here – rejoice!*
Starting with the music, the sound is exemplary. It uses Sony’s own BSCD2 mastering which gives all the recordings an extra dimension. This for example makes the stereo swoops at the start and Nathan East’s bass line from Footloose a lot clearer which in turn will even get even the toughest ‘I’m not getting out of my chair’ non-dancer tapping their feet and the 12-string intro to I’m Alright sparkles like never before. Kenny does a great version of Gene Vincent’s Be-Bop-A Lula as well, available here for the first time in some thirty-one years.
Moving onto the DVD, Mr Loggins of course is associated with several great movie soundtracks. Who can listen to Danger Zone for example without thinking about jet fighters and the obvious ones are all here but it’s the lesser seen PVs that raise the pulse rate. The little known and unreleased until now Swear Your Love is an eighties gem whilst the live version shows that Kenny and his band were not just studio musicians. For international buyers, please note that the DVD is NTSC Region 2.
Both discs are presented chronologically and come housed in a double disc jewel case. The aforementioned booklet has a full page print of each of the single sleeves, lyrics in Japanese and English and notes about each recording albeit Japanese only.
There have been Kenny Loggins compilations released by Sony before but none quite like this - complete – and I doubt there will be one better. For both the fanatic and the casual listener, this is as good as it will ever get.
DISC1 CD
All 19 songs (including 1 song on the world's first CD)
01. Two Oaths (with Stevie Nicks)
02. Tomorrow
03. I'm All Right
04. Sunrise Party (with Steve Perry)
05. Heart to Heart from
06. Heart Light of Love from
07. Footloose
08. I'm Free
09. Human Voice
10. Forever from
11. Danger Zone
12. Midday game
13. Dawn of the heart
14. Chain Lightning-Summer Light and Kampai †
15. Nobody's Fool
16. Be Bop A Ruler ††
17. Conviction of the Heart
18. For the First Time
19. Your Heart Will Lead You Home
†Japan only single - World first on CD
†† Japan only single
DISC2 DVD
01. Two People's Oath †
02. Easy Driver †
03. Tomorrow †
04. Keep the Fire †
05. I'm All Right (Live) †
06. Heart to Heart †
07. Love Heart Light †
08. Swear Your Love (Unreleased Video) †
09. Footloose
10. I'm Free
11. Human Voice †
12. Forever †
13. Danger Zone
14. Midday game †
15. Dawn of the Heart †
16. (I'm Gonna) Miss You †
17. Conviction of the Heart-Don't Want to Live †
18. For the First Time
19. Always, In All Ways †
†World first on DVD
*To date, collections by Cyndi Lauper, Boz Scaggs, Earth, Wind & Fire, Paul Young and Cheap Trick have been released.