The 1981 Listening Post - The Romantics - Strictly Personal

 The Romantics - Strictly Personal

#550

By Chris Roberts

October 1981

The Romantics

Strictly Personal

Genre: Power Pop, or as we call it in California, Power Soda.

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Chris’ Rating: 2.75 of 5

Highlights:

Why’d You Leave Me

I grew up in L.A., but during Summer vacations in the early 80s, my parents would stick me on a plane and send me to my grandparents in Minneapolis. Sometimes I’d go to the Minnesota State Fair with my cousins. We ate donuts and corn dogs while watching lazy muskies at the bottom of a manmade pool. When we could go alone, we saw live music and heard more while sweating in line for the Tilt-O-Whirl or the Scrambler. Cousin Andy liked Journey but was scared of harder stuff like the Scorpions. Cousin Dale, a little older than us, liked Devo and Rush, but was more interested in chasing after sunburnt girls with perms.

I’ve never heard this album before, but The Romantics Strictly Personal reminds me of all this. This is rock best heard while eating fried foods and staring at game fish in the hot sun. It’s spinning and trying not to barf. It’s music that neither Andy nor Dale would object to. It’s got a little edge, a little growl, but don’t worry… the Romantics have short hair and ties. 

But outside of a trip down memory lane, I don’t have much use for Strictly Personal. Perhaps it’s the coastal elite in me, but the band sounds like a zero-proof, zero calories version of The Replacements, at best. Really, it’s The Romantics at their worst. The guitar has muscle, but the rest is a rock template left on autopilot. Little connects. “Bop” is the “less words” version of “C’mon Girl (Work It Out With Me).” “No One Like You” and “Can’t Get Over You” sound like royalty free songs they found by searching “rock” on Google. Worse, the lyrics for “Look at Her” and “She’s Hot” were pulled from a Playboy For Kids sticker sheet. “Why’d You Leave Me,” a more Nuggety version of The Smithereens “Blood and Roses,” was the only song that really stood out after a couple listens.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0AJFYKb6SgBEBaHmoAft6S?si=GP-Vy0weSDyWNA-NKvaS4g

The 1980 Listening Post - The Romantics - National Breakout

 The Romantics - National Breakout

#466

by Robbie Rist

December 15 1980

The Romantics

National Breakout

Genre: Straight Up Motor City Power Pop

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Robbie’s Rating: 4.5

Highlights: 

Tomboy

Take Me Out Of The Rain

A Night Like This

Ah. The Sophomore Slump. The dreaded ‘second record after a hit’ thing. Expectations too high. A band now has six months to write a second record when they had years to write the first.

Well, it used to be that way. I’m quoting from a long dead business model.

You heard What I Like About You.  You liked what it was about.

It was fun. Upbeat. Joyous.

Like My Sharona. Without all of that spraying jizz.

It was a glorious time to love 60s influenced pop. 

So many choices.

And so many of them had these great first records.

And really good second records.

Which many are only discovering now.

Because most of these power pop second records of the time went off like a fart in a hurricane.

Victims of ‘new beatles’ hype.

Hell, the fucking Beatles weren’t the Beatles until a few records in.

Is National Breakout a ‘better record’ than their eponymous debut?

Is it worse?

I’ll say it sounds more like them than their debut does.

And I think that makes it better.

Is there a What I Like About You on it?

No.

I think songs like that are lightening in a bottle.

But there is Tomboy.

The sound of teen joy clocking in at two minutes, thirty one seconds.

It’s a bigger sound.

Not so friendly. Not so ‘pop’. I mean, it’s basically about being in love with a lesbian.

That’s one of the things I love about this record.

They didn’t want to play nice on album 2.

They wanted to sound like the blow the doors off live band they actually were.

And, minus ‘that song’, the craft is just as evident.

A Night Like This always caught me daydreaming about summer nights and the hope of SOME kind......ANY kind of sexual activity (that would include another person).

As a 17 year old man would.

National Breakout.....a potential stunning show opener.

The modern Bo Diddley stomp of I Can’t Tell You Anything.

Being a major sucker for mid tempo, strummy Byrds style songs, Take me Out Of The Rain ticks off every box in the joy/melancholy column.

This record must have been a major bomb because, by the time their next record come out (ohhh.....the days of ‘artist development’, where labels would give artists a few chances to fail....), guitarist Mike Skill is gone (he’s back now. First on bass, now back on guitar) and their guitar tones got SUPER heavy. (Which I loved...but I will do that review when we do 1981). 

If this was a debut record, the world would have bowed down.

But, alas, it came on the heels of one of the great pop singles in history.

Which basically relegated them to one hit wonder stats.

But, as they proved with this record, The Romantics were so much more than that.

Your mileage may vary.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0c4PLSCFgwCmMYmtnx6nxb?si=ce_mZ5vZS3GmBE6kxDgJxw

The 1980 Listening Post - The Romantics - The Romantics

The Romantics - The Romantics

#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

The 1983 Listening Post - The Romantics - In Heat

The Romantics - In Heat

#167
September 1983
The Romantics
In Heat
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Rock You Up
One in a Million
Talking in Your Sleep

Opening up with a song that echoes “What I Like About You”, “Rock You Up” is probably the smart move. But then again, maybe I’m just a sucker for tight, taut, Power Pop with an edge. I feel like The Romantics should’ve been bigger and then I realize that they had some massive, early retirement hits. Like the one that pops out of this record, “Talking in Your Sleep”.
The Romantics were the next in a long line of ragamuffin mop tops that could pound out hits and still be almost anonymous. I doubt anyone but serious music aficionados could name the members. But I think that goes for Strawberry Alarm Clock. And The Zombies. And even Bay City Rollers. Or The Beat. Or The Plimsouls. Or The Knack (present readers excepted)
Were they the last of this breed? If not, it was sure close.