The Ballads Atlanta GA

The Ballads

REO Speedwagon

Epic / Legacy Records, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/06/1999

When one thinks of make-out music, I don't think the band whosename comes to mind first is REO Speedwagon. Then again, what do Iknow; the first time I hoped to score with a girl I was dating, Ihad Beethoven playing in the background - which she demanded I turnoff. With that history, I'm amazed I ever got laid. But Idigress.

But Kevin Cronin and crew have known for most of their almost30-year career that the ballad has been a powerful secret weaponfor them. While they've been known for their rock edge most oftheir career, it has been their ballads that have brought themsuccess often. Recognizing this, the band has combined tracks oldand new to create The Ballads, a disc that will probably be getting a lot ofplay at weddings this year.

If you have the best-of CD The Hits, you already have some of these tracks, such as"Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling". But whatCronin and the band do with this disc is to keep things fresh, soeven though I'm listening to "Keep On Loving You" for thethousandth time, it still sounds like a newer song.

For that matter, all the older music on The Ballads has kept its freshness well; these tracks couldhave been recorded yesterday, with the exception that Cronin'svocals have taken on a more mellow sound of late, as evidenced bythe new track "Just For You".