Customer Reviews

Busted

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A little disclaimer. I am a Cheap Trick fan, but I am not a blind Cheap Trick fan. If they make a mis-step, I will be honest with my opinion. First, Cheap Trick is a modern rock band that hit the scene 20 years to early. Now if being contemporary in the late 80's early 90's meant sounding cookie cutter, bland and boring like Styx who have and will always be a joke, then no thanks. I hold Cheap Trick to a higher standard, and this sound was not a good fit for Cheap Trick. But, for Styx it is a good fit for their music has no soul. Their sound is based upon sounding like showtunes, but that is a whole other story, now on with the review. Busted could have been the cd to blast off the door that Lap of Luxury opened. Common sense says let these guys do their thing, you know, crisp and crunchy guitars, witty sarcastic lyrics (See Modern Rock). Instead, Epic brought in Richie Zito to take out anything edgy or anything with a creative spark and replace it with safe, bland synths, and horrible production. Epic wanted more bland power ballads, like the Flame clone "When You Need Someone. Then there is "Can't Stop Falling Into Love," the nadir of Cheap Trick. This is hands down the worst song they have ever done (actually it is tied with Rock All Night from Standing on the Edge). Rumor had it that Rod Stewart wanted this song, and they were going to let him have it,(please take it Rod) but Epic nixed the deal. Those execs at Epic were visionaries. The only slow song that is worth anything is "Walk Away," with Chrissy Hyndes singing backup. "Back n Blue," could have been a cool Stones/Keith Richards solo type of romp (See keefs first solo album for the song take it so hard), instead we get a glazed over song with no energy, and once again cheesy synths instead of maybe a cool hammond b3. "Can't Understand It," shines through the wickedly horrible production. One can only imagine what this song could sound like if say Rick Rubin produced it, or Brendan O'Brian. The Diane Warren song is a sad sad affair. At the time all I could think was, "Is this the same band that did 'Downed?'" What this album needed was a good producer, and a record label that knew what they were doing. On the whole the majority of the songs here that the band wrote were good if not great songs,(except Can't Stop, and If You Need Me, When You Need Someone,) suffering from lousy production. You could almost feel the bands hand's being tied on each song. The guitars were turned down low, and the synths on high. Busted (the album, and title track) should have just crackled with energy, instead it just plods, same with "You Drive I'll Steer, which is killed with synths. "Had to Make You Mine," is a great Beatlesque (Think Hard Days Night era)song, and Roy Wood's "Rock and Roll Tonight," is also very powerful and fun. Gee, it also had no synths in the mix, go figure. It took Cheap Trick till 1997 to get creative control of their music, and my friends that album was a masterpiece. Busted though is a could have should have been,which is sad for a band of Trick's caliber. The blame can sqarely be put on Epic records, and Richie Zito. Trick had no say in song selection or production. A little thing called creative control alluded them.

So much outside influence had been exerted on "Lap Of Luxury," that you can almost hear the clashing of swords on "Busted." Cheap Trick wanted more control over the sound, Epic Records wanted another "Flame." Between the marketers and the musicians, some sort of balanced was reached. The end result is a album that is good but not inspired, and manages not to become a total bow wow ala "The Doctor."

"Back'N'Blue" is the closest thing to a Stones knock off that Cheap Trick has ever attempted. It totally out rocks anything else on the CD. Almost as if to balance that kind of power, the title track sounds like a piece of modern rock radio piffle. "Can't Stop Falling Into Love" was the band's attempt at writing a hit ballad (it made the top twenty), the label honchos served up another Diane Warren contender with "When You Need Someone."

What all parties seemed to miss (or at least until the "Authorized Greatest Hits" was released) was that the best song here was "Walk Away." This was the kind of song I longed to hear on my radio during those times, a near perfect power-pop-rock confection featuring the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. Although you can do better in your Cheap Trick CD collection, "Busted" is worth having on that single song alone.

this album sucks. having mick jones of foreigner any way involved with your record post-1980 is the kiss if death and the sure sign of selling out, and sell out they did. totally cheeseball anthems and power ballads galore. if you dig richard marx, by all means, BUY IT.

their early records are great (anything 1977-1983), and the newer stuff (rockford is fantastic) is much better than this fluff.

Cheap Trick had made a huge commercial comeback with their previous album "Lap Of Luxury". Two years later they would follow it up with this album that could very well have been titled "Lap Of Luxury II" as the two discs are very similar. The band did manage to wrestle away some of the outside songwriter influence from "Busted" as the majority of the tracks were penned by the band themselves with a few exceptions. The album had a big hit with "Can't Stop Fallin Into Love" which is a decent enough ballad. There are some good tunes here including "You Drive I'll Steer" and the album closer the rocking "Rock N Roll Tonight". Unfortunately there area also a plethora of rather annoying ballads, with cheesy production and lots of 80's style synthesizers. "Busted" is ok for the most part, but like the previous album it seems obvious that the record company exerted plenty of influence here and this still does not stack up against early (or later for that matter) material from the band.

Cheap Trick's BUSTED would be worth buying just for the closing song, "Rock and Roll Tonight," in which the band rocks as hard as I've heard. (If you're a fan of "California Man" from HEAVEN TONIGHT, "Rock and Roll Tonight" is by the same composer, Roy Wood.) Good thing "Rock and Roll Tonight" is the closing track, because it will splinter your stereo speakers, especially since play-louds "You Drive, I'll Steer," "Back and Blue" and the title track precede it. On the pop-ballad side,"Walk Away" and "I Had To Make You Mine" stand out. I waver between considering BUSTED among Cheap Trick's very best or just plain good. Hear BUSTED and decide for yourself.

After the success of 1988's Lap of Luxury, Busted may disappoint some fans, who are looking for a carbon copy of Lap of Luxury. While, Busted didn't spawn any big hits it is a very good album. While Busted may not be Cheap Trick's best album it is certainly a very good, later day album from Cheap Trick. The biggest stand out is Can't Stop Fallin into Love, but all of the songs sound good. Busted is just one of those albums, that may not leave a lasting effect on you, but it does sound good while it's playing.

attempt to recreate the commercial success of the prior "Lap of Luxury" album. Sadly, it fell short in that regard as well. Obviously, Rick Neilson's songwriting abilities were held hostage somewhere, while the bands strings were pulled by Top 40 hungry executives. Compounding the problem, was the initial release of the horrid "Can't Stop Falling Into Love", one of Cheap Trick's weakest songs ever. This song may have at the time, single handedly destroyed Cheap Trick's commercial foothold with new, younger listeners. The title track "Busted" is a silly, incomprehensible bit of fluff. If you're looking for mediocre, predictable mellow pop ballads, "Wherever Would I Be", "If You Need Me, and Walk Away" will fill the bill. "When You Need Somone" is the most worthwhile of these tear jerkers. On the brighter side, "Back 'N Blue" is an excellent "top 5" sounding song, and though repetitive! , "Can't Understand It" is fun and energetic. All in All, Zander does his best to make this material work, but the rest of the band's talents are wasted - though Nielson shows his ability to play pleasing acoustic, classical style guitar. This album is much too restricted and repressed for lifelong Cheap Trick fan's, but would definitely please young teenage girls, and I mean that in all sincerity.

Allow me to begin by stating that I AM a Cheap Trick fan. I buy every new release without hesitation, even though this CD was the last good CT release. Coming after the megahit "Lap Of Luxury", I was happy with this cd. The highlights in my opinion are Back N Blue, Can't Stop Falling Into Love, Busted and Walk Away. Other than that it's filler...I've been very disappointed with each subsequent studio release from the boys from Rockford since Busted. The more recent stuff lacks identity, and have very few songs that can get you singing along. The songs just sort of seem to drone along aimlessly. Actually the Rockford cd usually puts me to sleep-Literally. I'm afraid that CT has seen the last of the good times. Aside from the DVD release SILVER [which I HIGHLY recommend] Ceap Trick has done VERY little to keep my interest lately. The duet between Robin Zander and his daughter Holland on the Silver DVD will give you chills up your spine. Maybe Rick Nielsen should spend more time trying to recapture CHEAP TRICK'S magic, and less time ripping on Gene Simmons' Bass guitar playing skills in the Nikki Sixx autobiography

Cheap Trick's previous record, 1988's "Lap of Luxury" sure brought them out of an eight-year commercial slump, but its reliance on session writers was disappointing. But thankfully in 1990, Cheap Trick released "Busted." The album scaled the similar platinum status as its predecessor, but more importantly, it re-introduced the band's fans to Cheap Trick's innovative originality.
Though their label, Epic, had it in their heads to control track selection, the band does their best with an otherwise bleak situation, by pouring their unique musical combination of cynycial glam, pop, heavy blistering rock, and emotionally vivid tunes. "Busted" is (so far) the best example of Cheap Trick keeping in step with the times (while avoiding conformity) without completely losing their uncompromising flare. In some places, such as 'Walk Away' and 'Had to Make You Mine,' fans are reminded of the pop loved by screaming teenage girls, as reflected in 70's albums "Heaven Tonight" and "Live at Budokan." The hit 'Can't Stop Fallin' Into Love' is one of the few good early 90's pop-rock songs, while excellent tunes such as 'Back 'N Blue,' 'Busted,' 'You Drive I'll Steer' and a version of Roy Wood's 'Rock and Roll Tonight' re-confirm Cheap Trick's hard rocking talent and witty humor.
While "Busted" was a disappointment to the fans who were stuck in the 70's, it still proves their broad range of musical territory and rock-n-roll progression.

really i dont let the critics down what i like. everyone say cheap tricks album "busted" is this,that, well sorry i think this album goes into higher gear than their previous records, it has great rockers that make you get goose bumps with their energy- "back n blue", "you drive i'll steer", the title track, "cant understand it", and the closing track rock like no other. and the ballads,- "when u need me" the diane warren hit- "wherever would i be" all of this album is non stop cheap trick dont let people tell u different if you like rock n roll with melody and energy get this now! after all -they inspired almost every band that plays hard rock /heavy metal music