Ridin' the Storm Out (1974)



  1. Ridin' the Storm Out
  2. Whiskey Night
  3. Oh Woman
  4. Find My Fortune
  5. Open Up
  6. Movin'
  7. Son of a Poor Man
  8. Start of a New Life
  9. It's Everywhere
  10.Without Expression (Don't Be the Man)


 

By the time REO Speedwagon got around to releasing their third album, they were already on their third lead singer. That’s not exactly what you’d call stability. From what I’ve read, most of Ridin’ the Storm Out had already been written—and in some cases, even recorded—when Kevin Cronin was still fronting the band. But tensions behind the scenes reached a boiling point, and Cronin was shown the door. Legend has it, they even went so far as to airbrush him out of the album cover. Ouch.

In stepped Michael Murphy, who—as far as I can tell—hadn’t done much before this and certainly didn’t do much after. It’s hard to say how much of a stamp he put on this record, but given how far the whole thing regresses compared to the first two albums, it’s probably safe to assume his influence didn’t help matters.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that some of this is personal taste. I wasn’t exactly soaking up the rock scene when this came out—I was seven years old at the time. Maybe if I’d been twenty-something with long hair, bell-bottoms, and a fondness for acid-washed denim, this kind of record would’ve landed differently. But even with that allowance, this thing has aged like milk. Say what you will about the first two albums, but at least they had a little bounce, a little fun. This one? Not so much. It’s dry. It’s flat. It takes itself too seriously.

The title track Ridin’ the Storm Out has somehow stuck around all these years, and it still gets trotted out at shows. Honestly, it’s not even that great. In fact, it sounds a heck of a lot better now without the layers of synth and without Murphy’s growling delivery. It may be the “highlight” of the record, but if this is the peak, you can guess what the valleys look like.

The only thing I can even halfway get behind here is Son of a Poor Man, which at least feels like it came from the same band that made the first two records. And I’ll throw a small bone to Find My Fortune, mostly because it’s sung by Gary Richrath—and at times he almost sounds like Cronin, which might explain why it works better than most of the rest.

To be fair, Cronin’s presence probably wouldn’t have saved this record. The ship was already headed in this direction, and they probably felt it was time to try something new. Hard to blame them—they hadn’t exactly been topping charts at this point. But musically, they aren't there yet. If your tastes lean more toward the grittier, bluesier early ’70s stuff, maybe this will scratch an itch. But if you’re looking for the REO that would eventually pack arenas with their power ballads and high-gloss rock anthems, well, you’ll have to wait a few more records. This ain’t it.





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