Customer Reviews

Life As We Know It

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

 

 

Buy the time Life as We Know it was released in 1987 some fans weren't to interested in buying a new Reo album, but Life as We Know it is Reo's strongest album since Hi Infidelity. New Way to Love kicks off the album, then the familiar That Ain't Love and In My Dreams. With Life as We Know it the boys really wrote a killer batch of tunes. One too Many Girlfriends, Variety Tonight, and Screams and Whispers also stand out. If you can find this one I highly recommend it.

I dug out my CD "Life As We Know It" and gave it a good listen tonight. It's not the "Jump The Shark" stinkbomb I remember when I bought it brand new in 1987. Back then I listened to it for a few weeks, put it on the shelf and never listened to it all the way through until now.

If you grew up on REO's 80's hit ballads you will probably enjoy this CD. But if you grew up on REO's 70's rockers you will probably dislike it as much as I do.

"Life As We Know It" is a pleasant and very sweet POP album - and that's the problem. Had "Life" been recorded by anyone but REO I would have rated it higher. But growing up on this band and knowing the musical heights REO achieved in the seventies and early 80's it's disappointing to hear this once great ROCK band finally burning out.

Like Cheap Trick's last couple of albums on Epic or Heart's 80's albums on Capitol this is the sound of a veteran yet bored and uninspired band playing it safe to keep the record company happy and to stay on the radio - using "Big 80's" production techniques, drum and synth programming with song doctors helping to prop the inconsistent songwriting up. And like the ugly cover and Kevin's mustache(?) it ain't pretty.

The production badly dates this album. Alan Gratzer's drum kit is drenched in gated reverb and goofy sound effects. Neil's synth and emulator parts might have sounded cool or cute in 1987, now are annoying.

There's some good songs here and the band tries hard to keep things interesting. The very catchy "Can't Get You Out of My Heart" should have been released as a single instead of the middling and bland "Variety Tonight". "One Too Many Girlfriends" which is one of the best songs on the album could have also been a single.

Gary's "Over The Edge" reminds me way too much of Kenny Loggins "Footloose" (same "duh-duh" keyboard riff) until near the end where REO and Richrath finally breaks out with some nice hot soloing. Still it's sad for me to think REO is rocking as hard as Kenny Loggins at this point and this is Gary's last song on a REO album.

"Life As We Know It" is a hit and miss effort from a band laboring to keep up with the changing tastes of the late 80's while the relationships of it's members were splintering. Kevin's "Tired of Getting Nowhere" is a perfect song to sum this whole CD up.

"Life As We Know It" is a sad way for the best and most successful lineup REO ever had to go out on.

One of REO Speedwagon's finest but it did not receive the credit it deserves. Been an REO fan since High Infidelity. Saw them live in 2010 and was blown away. Started replenishing my REO collection either on digital or CD format. Can't believe they released their first album in 1971. REO Speedwagon invented the power ballad genre but through all the personell changes they still know how to rock. One of America's finest bands.

I have been an REO Speedwagon fan for many years and even though this was the last studio release with Gary Richrath it is arguably their best. It certainly beats out any of their bubble gum albums released in the 1980s including High Infidelity. The production is excellent. The best songs are That Ain't Love and In My Dreams however there are no clunkers on this album. It is a shame that this album is now out of print. Luckily it is not a hard album to get through Amazon.

This CD has been too long missing - is a little harder to find but worth the effort! From slower songs like "In My Dreams" to the upbeat "New Way to Love" this has been one of my favorite CD's from REO, maybe the time frame,maybe the songs themselves. But an REO collection is incomplete without this one!

this album introduced me to rock music some 15 years back - so this album is very special for me. i first heard the singles "that ain't love" and "in my dreams" and i was hooked. so i got the album and the rest of the tracks didn't disappoint. later i picked up the other REO albums too - and in my opinion only "high infidelty" compares with this. "that ain't love" and "in my dreams" are definitely the strongest numbers here - but "screams and whispers", "variety tonight", "accidents can happen" aren't far behind. and there's some great guitar work in "over the egde". i got a used cd of this album on amazon just a week back - and i can't get it out of my cd player!

"Life as We Know it" is a fantastic album. The songs are all catchy, light-hearted, and fun. Sure the sound on this album can be classified as cheesy, but you know something...IT WORKS! Through out their career, you can see REO roll with the changes in the music biz. "Life as We Know It" is much better than their previous effort "Wheels are Turnin" and I place this album up there with their classics. After this album Gary Richrath and Alan Gratzer left the band and REO, in my opinion, has never fully recovered.

In this release, Neal and Bruce shine with 2 pleasant offerings. Neal's "Variety Tonight" has an infectious groove that you just won't get tired of. And you can't help but get smile listening to Bruce's clever "Accidents Can Happen", a little commentary on murderous possibilities. The rest is solid REO, with the addition of some well done horn arrangements. It seems that in terms of creating great REO Speedwagon music, it is the combination of Gary, Kevin, Neal, Bruce and Alan. And this marks the end of that lineup with Gary and Alan departing. What followed, "the Chicken album" was pleasant enough, but certainly lacking.

Though this album was hugely overlooked does not mean it is a bad album. Trust me, it's not. REO always kept the rock rolling but they were always trying something new in their songs. This album is a prime example. NEW WAY TO LOVE, the first track on the album, is such a fun song with a catchy beat and nice horns, it makes you want to dance! Aside from the three singles in THAT AIN'T LOVE, IN MY DREAMS, and VARIETY TONIGHT - all of which are very catchy and good - the rest of the album is just as well-produced, written, and performed. Sadly, the last album with the classic line-up. Well worth the purchase.

I have just about everything REO has put out since Kevin Cronin came on board and this is one of my favorites. There is so much energy in each and every song, you can get an aerobic work-out just listening to it. It has the typical Reo ballads and some really great rockers too! This is the kind of vintage stuff that you jump around and sing along to.