Wheels Are Turnin’

The magic of this album lies in three tracks that ended up becoming milestones. Can’t Fight This Feeling had already been playing on the radio before its release, but on the album it sounds more polished, with that keyboard weaving into the guitar and those lyrics that feel written for anyone to make their own. Keep On Loving You, though not on the tracklist, is impossible not to mention here: that clean guitar solo and the explosive chorus are pure controlled adrenaline. And then there’s Wheels Are Turnin’, which gives the album its name and is more than just another track: that opening riff that sounds like a march, Alan Gratzer’s drums setting the pace, and that chorus begging to be hummed in the car. It’s no surprise the album ended up going platinum in the U.S. shortly after its release.

Behind it all is the same lineup that had dominated the '70s, though with Neal Doughty as the only original member on keyboards. The band had already proven they could sell millions without losing their essence, and in 1984 they simply eased off the pedal a bit to let the sound breathe. Recorded in Illinois studios with equipment that wasn’t the most cutting-edge at the time, the album sounds warm, as if every note had been captured in a single take. There’s no filler here: every song has its moment to shine, and that’s clear in the tracklist where tracks like I Do’ Wanna Know or Live Every Moment work like gear shifts on an open highway—no rush, but no pauses either.