Lovin' Every Minute Of It

Lacking Paul Dean's amicable guitar chug or Mike Reno's excitable vocal pounce, 1985's Lovin' Every Minute of It fails to sport anything as catchy as "Working for the Weekend" or as rock steady as "The Kid Is Hot Tonite," and because of this, the album comes off as one of the band's poorest releases. Although the title track cracked the Top Ten, its lethargic, see-saw pace fell short of what the band had put into past hits. Even in ballad form, Loverboy sounds uninspired and bland with "This Could Be the Night," which actually made it to number ten on the charts. The Jim Vallance-Bryan Adams-penned "Dangerous" almost works, but filler like "Bullet in the Chamber," "Friday Night," and "Steal the Thunder" lowers the album's stock substantially, proving that their knack for writing uproarious but catchy radio rock material was now behind them. Both this album and 1987's Wildside mark the group's digression into arena rock prosaicness, and anything that is the least bit appealing from Lovin' Every Minute of It is best heard alongside their biggest hits on one of their compilations. ~ Mike DeGagne