Loverboy

Here’s a shocker: MelodicRock.comone of the Internet’s most respected sites for fans of feel-good hard rock, heavy metal and power-popproclaimed Loverboy’s Just Getting Started as 2007’s “Album of the Year.” “What a second,” we can hear you cry. “Loverboy has released an album since 1981’s quadruple platinum Get Lucky?” Actually, Just Getting Started is the Canadian quintet’s seventh studio album, and although it arrived with little fanfare two years ago as a Wal-Mart exclusive, Just Getting Started bridges the musical gap between the decades with a 37-minute mix of Loverboy’s punchy rockers, sentimental ballads and tongue-in-cheekiness. Indeed, the years have done little to mellow the group that electrified stadiums in the early ’80a with “Turn Me Loose,” “Working For the Weekend” and “This Could Be the Night.” And who can forget “Hot Girls in Love”? All but one of the original Lover-men remain, and the band has spent the past several years touring hardalthough they haven’t been anywhere near a stadium stage in years. Loverboy’s last studio album, the underwhelming VI, was released in 1997, which made the arrival and subsequent success of Just Getting Started even more startling. Despite more than a quarter-century on the road, vocalist Mike Reno still possesses a crisp, powerful set of pipes, and he still sings like a horny Everyman who can’t get a break.