Now I am far from being a big fan of pop, but I can appreciate hooks and craft and solid production value, and REO had all of that. How easy it is to forget that any cliché was once a fresh, innovative idea, so great and becoming so popular that it was copied ad nauseam.

Reo had a “density” in their sound that made it like little else. They layering of certain sounds – I am thinking piano, strings, acoustic guitar – had never been done quite with the same dedicated intensity.

My wife hates them for exactly the same reason I like them – she needs silences and hates limiters and compression. But, heck, if only for the melancholic effect, it;s worth a listen…

How old are you? Were you around during the supposed heyday of this nutless pretenders? In the late 70s rock was nearly dead, taken over by disco. Punk and New Wave were just coming out of the woodwork and largely under the radar. Going to clubs was painful enough with all the disco, but if you asked the DJ to play some rock and roll here is what you got: Riding the Storm Out – REO; Never been any Reason – Head East; and a Bob Seger song. Always. Go to a party and all you would hear would be Fleetwood Mac, REO, or Boston. It was enough to melt your brain. As a teen into rock, I bought several REO LPs. Still have them. But as my taste in music broadened, I left REO behind as the teeny bopper rock that it is. You can listen to this crap to your own delight. I had to suffer through my cousin singing (rather horribly, I must add) an REO song at her own wedding. Me? If REO comes on the radio, within 2 bars I am on a new station. You could say its like getting so drunk on tequila that even the smell still makes you want to vomit.

Rob
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