Customer Reviews

Hi Infidelity

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"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.

I don't know what that "GAG" reviewer from SF was choking on (or smoking perhaps) in the negative review for this album, but I am in total disagreement. Clearly that person isn't a fan and was offering little in the way of an actual review, just wanted to rip on REO here. And for all the freakin' "real" critics who think music has to have some deep message to be good, give me a break! Sometimes we just want to be entertained and sing along. I listen to this album regularly 20 years after its release and still find it a great listen from start to finish.

Literally every song could have been released as a single and done well. Nice variance of upbeat rock oriented songs like "Tough Guys" and "Out of Season" to go along with the hits "Keep On Loving You" and "Take It On The Run". "In Your Letter", "Follow My Heart" and "I Wish You Were There" are also standout cuts.

An absolutely classic Pop/Rock album from the 80's that remains in my all time top 5 to this day.

I first heard REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity back at university and hadn't thought much about it since, consigning it to those growing up years. Big Mistake! getting Hi Infidelity back this summer was a breath of fresh air into my pop album. The next time you have to face those grownup tasks like tidying the house or ironing a shirt. Stop! Peel off the years and put on Hi-infedility - one great track follows another. I think my neighbours are getting fed up of it but I know my friends will love it. SO I'm buying these very reasonably priced CDs from Amazon for everyone of you. Happy Christmas Guys. Andy.

This was the album that crossed REO Speedwagon's earlier rock leanings with their later pop-based sound. For sure, it is a classic to this day that sounds as fresh as ever on the remastered CD.

With four top 40 hits ranging from rockers like "Don't Let Him Go" to the well-known #1 hit power ballad "Keep On Loving You", this album is diverse, melodic, and interesting. "Take It On The Run" is a favorite of mine to this day with its classic AOR melodies and chorus. "Tough Guys" and "Shakin' It Loose" are REO rock standards, while the closer "I Wish You Were There" is a fantastic, wistful power ballad.

In summary, there is not a dud on this album. If you like the classic melodic rock of the late '70s and early '80s, this one is a winner for you. To this day, this album lives up to its legendary status. Strongly recommended for classic and melodic rock fans.

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.

Yeah, you. You know you went to at least one REO concert in the '80s, assuming you were born by then. And as much as you may consider yourself an upstanding citizen who now listens to more legitimate talents such as Dave Matthews -- okay, I make little joke -- you and I both know that there's a place in your heart for this stuff. It's okay: I won't tell anyone.

Maybe you had to be there, but if you were, I'm betting that you'll know what I mean when I say that there's something that's just plain timeless and fun about this one. It takes itself so very seriously, but it's not *entirely* unjustified in doing so -- especially considering that these were fairly dark days for music, and folks like Styx were running around instigating much greater crimes against humanity than were on display here. _Hi Infidelity_ shows melody and exuberance and overproduction and fairly atrocious lyrics slammed together into one big piece of something that I persist in believing is actually fairly decent, all things considered. Your mileage may vary.

You never would believe this is the same band comparing this album to their one before it - I mean, they both have the same sound, but their '79 album was largely uninspiring and yielded no hits or anything even remotely resembling a hit. Then they turn around the very next year and crank out an album where damn near every song on it was a hit. Sure, they all weren't top 20 smashes, but if you'll remember correctly, back in late '80 and early '81 around 7 of the songs on this powerhouse were playing on the radio. Seven! You talk about presence! That's comparable to "Thriller". People often bash this album because of its confectionary appeal, but you'd be in serious denial to not acknowledge its impact.

If you're reading this, you probably know the well known hits "Keep On Loving You" and "Take It On The Run". And if you've seen REO in concert, you know their lesser known hit "Don't Let Him Go", of which they usually open their show with. So you probably want to know about some of the other songs.

"Tough Guys" is "that song that starts with The Little Rascals". In case you never heard it, this song begins with an audio clip from the old TV show. "Out of Season" is a really good song which is upbeat and has a catchy melody. And the best song, in my opinion, is Bruce Hall's "Someone Tonight", a danceable tune about the here and now. This song gives one the feel good attitude to have fun now...no commitments.

"You want it, I got it" "I'll treat you so tender, Then leave you, And never write!"

Overall, there are enough hits and other great songs on this CD that it could have been a greatest songs collection.

One of the best selling rock and roll albums of all time. This album owned the charts in 81. Can't believe it's been 30 years since it was released. I still have it on Vinyl which I bought in 1981.

REO SPEEDWAGO-HIGH INFIDELITY: This is the eight track that never quite made it out of my first car stereo during the summer of 1980. A virtual greatest hits in itself, the album with REO's second best title ("YOU CAN TUNE A PIANO BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FISH nabs first prize), was both their breakthrough and their commercial peak, after ten years and as many albums. Highlights include the smart, if overplayed pop ballads KEEP ON LOVIN' YOU and TAKE IT ON THE RUN, which are intermingled with hook-laden rockers TOUGH GUYS (complete with classic Little Rascals soundbite) and SOMEONE TONIGHT, the latter sung by bassist Bruce Hall instead of frontman Kevin Cronin. The Bo Diddley thump of DON'T LET HIM GO is in sharp contrast to IN YOUR LETTER's bright n' bouncy delivery, but somehow it all works out beautifully. Fans are advised to check out the Speedwagon's earlier unsung hits collection A DECADE OF ROCK & ROLL...that is, if you can get HI INFEDELITY outta your eight track (or CD) player.

RATING: FOUR HIGHS