Loverboy
Get Lucky
Columbia/Legacy
by David Chiu
“Working for the Weekend,” the single off of Loverboy’s 1981 album Get Lucky, will forever be synonymous with the funny Saturday Night Live skit in which the late Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze audition as Chippendale’s dancers to the song. With its showy lyrics and zinging guitar lines (not to mention its cowbell intro), “Weekend” is so over top, but that’s the charm of Loverboy. Get Lucky reveals the shamelessly naughty and unabashed side of the band—apparently modesty is not in the group’s vocabulary (check out the album cover and title, duh). And even if it sounds closely like Foreigner, “When It’s Over” is a strong power ballad—it’s the album’s second best song to “Weekend.” Other tracks like “Watch Out” and “Take Me To The Top” represents what Loverboy’s sound is all about: typical and formulaic AOR with a New Wave sensibility; only the Rolling Stones’ soundalike “Emotional” reveals a true back-to-basics approach sans synthesizers. Get Lucky overall is a guilty pleasure–a must listen for those who feel rock sometimes takes itself way too seriously. Trying to read too much into the group’s music kind of takes away the fun that the band offers. Loverboy fans will be happy to know that this expanded edition also features some bonus tracks, including a demo version of “Working for the Weekend” that doesn’t depart radically from the master take.
NewBeats 