#5
Reviewed by Steve Caisse
January 4 1980
The Romantics
The Romantics
Allen’s Rating: 5 out of 5
Steve’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Allen’s Highlights:
Keep in Touch
What I Like about You
Little White Lies
Steve’s Highlights:
What I Like About You
When I Look in Your Eyes
Girl Next Door
Little White Lies
Keep In Touch
Cover Song
She's Got Everything (The Kinks)
As the ‘70s closed out the biggest song of the year was The Knack’s power pop classic “My Sharona”, while Cheap Trick’s “Live At Budokon”, Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” and The Cars debut album were all dominating FM radio. As the ’80s arrived The Romantics are riding this wave and dropping their own enduring power pop gem “What I Like About You” as a single in time for the 1979 Christmas rush. In retrospect it’s hard to believe that it didn’t crack the top 40, but the song has since been used to sell everything from Budweiser to Toyotas.
So, what makes a great power pop record? Some of the key elements are big jangly guitars, tight arrangements, ear-worm choruses, background harmonies, lyrical subject matter focusing on love, girls and good times, and melodic hooks that tip their hat to the British Invasion. At its core it’s a genre made by people who ran out of music from the ‘60s to listen to so they decided to make some themselves. By this measure, The Romantics hit all the marks while wearing their influences on their sleeve – The Dave Clark Five, The Kinks, early Who with some American garage band thrown in for good measure.
The opener, “When I Look In Your Eyes”, sounds like a first draft of “What I Like About You” – but certainly had hit potential in its own right. “Tell It to Carrie “ goes full Merseybeat and “Little White Lies” and “Girl Next Door” sound like they would have fit in fine on the British pub rock scene five years earlier. It might have been the start of a new decade, but the music was still clinging to the two before it. Only “Keep In Touch” gives a hint of where their sound will go as they become MTV stars over the next few years.
Overall, there was no need to pick up the needle. Nothing jumps out as a dud, and quite a few of them should have got more radio play. No surprise, these songs had been a staple of their live act for years leading up to their record deal. You can tell they know what they are doing and that they are having a damn good time doing it. If you have a good crop of tunes you don’t need to ask any more from a rock band.
https://open.spotify.com/album/41DhoTqWGvhvTCUkG96Poy?si=yNAfZPDfR_GwxAIoJvAsTw
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