Customer Reviews

Heaven Tonight

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rick Nielsen once said he had a big enough stash of songs written in the early days to have cut a dozen albums. If that was a true statement, he was saving up the best for "Heaven Tonight." Absolutely everything here clicks. From the cryptic fun of "Surrender" to the kiss-off of "Auf Weidersen," there isn't a lame cut in the bunch. They also take a stronger stance in the production department, peeling the gloss of "In Color" back just enough to give the rocker instinct some bite, but leaving enough pop polish to make the album sparkle.

Nielsen had become a guitar maniac by now, throwing off inventive riffs like he'd just invented the six-string. The rolling thunder of "Stiff Competition" and "Auf Weidersen" out new-wave many of the bands sporting skinny ties at the time, and their cover of the Move's "California Man" make Cheap Trick sound as brilliant as any British Invasion band of the sixties. "Surrender" is also quite possibly the most subversive rock song to brush the lower regions of the pop charts. Bubbly keyboards, Pete Townshend-ish guitar banging and a lyric about sneaking in on your parents while they make out to your KISS records...if that isn't your idea of a rock anthem for the post baby-boom generation, you're probably reading this review by accident.

Equal parts funny and deviant, yet 100% tuneful, "Heaven Tonight" is Cheap Trick's high water mark in the studio. If you get any Trick album other than "At Budokan," this is the one you must have.

Cheap Trick has 13 full length studio cds on the market and most people under 20 have never heard this band. I select Heaven Tonight as the cd to start with. Sure, the debut Cheap Trick and the follow up, In Color, are great cds, but you can get those after Heaven Tonight. Sure, Live at Budokan was what sent Cheap Trick up the charts, but Heaven Tonight came before that. Then there are the mediocre Cheap Trick cds like All Shook Up, Standing on the Edge, The Doctor and Busted. I happened to like One On One, Next Position Please, Lap of Luxury, Woke Up With A Monster and 1997's self titled Cheap Trick. Yet most Cheap Trick fans would agree that their first four albums are their best. I have to agree to an extent. Heaven Tonight achieved the cohesiveness and consistency that their first two albums missed. Heaven Tonight is stronger than Dream Police is. With Heaven Tonight, Cheap Trick displays exactly what they do best--rock and roll with a pop flare. This cd sounds even better now that it's been digitally remastered. This cd is worth having if you are a serious music fan. Also, if you are a die-hard Cheap Trick fan that is open minded about their entire catalogue, you might check out the now hard-to-find solo cd from Robin Zander (1993). I thought it was different but yet just as good as Cheap Trick's material.

Cheap Trick has a kind of magic for taking the sounds of yesterday and today, then adding some guitars and extreme vocals to produce some great music that does not butcher it's roots, but harvest them. This CD is them in their prime, prior to the record companies seemingly dictating what they were to play...

From the onslaught of Surrender (a teeneage anthem!), to the serious heavy pop of 'California Man', 'Top of the World' and 'On the Radio', then to the eerie sounds of 'Heaven Tonight', and then again to the anger and chutzpa of 'Takin me back', this CD has it all. It shows all the sides of Cheap Trick, save a few classics that they had already established with the 'Live at Budokan' album.

What I really loved about this CD is that it seemed like a 'Greatest Hits' already - no filler at ALL - something I would rarely say about ANY CD ever. This is one band that has a lot more to offer than what you may have heard on the radio, so check this gem out for the real Cheap Trick - you only have to get this one and maybe 'In Color' to get their finest moments, as opposed to the so-called 'Greatest Hits' CD's out there now...

This CD captures Cheap Trick perfectly. The songwriting, playing, and production came together here to create a music set that withstands the test of time extremely well.

Unlike "In Color", which showcased Cheap Trick's pop sensibilities, "Heaven Tonight" is a raving rock CD. From the opening riff of 'Surrender', this CD is a great collection of hooks, melodies, and rhythms for people who think too much of today's popular stuff is awful.

Unlike so many contemporary CD's, there is no 'filler' or 'throwaway' material here: it's all very good, and every song leaves you wanting to hear the next one.

Cheap Trick released several CD's after this one, and while most had at least one great song, none of them measured up to "heaven Tonight" for consistent excellence from start to finish. While Cheap Trick is a band best known for their own music, The Move's "California Man" is covered here, and Cheap Trick's remake is actually more forceful than the original.

Note to Audiophiles: The Cheap Trick remasters show some of the greatest degree of improvement of any set of remasters, in part because the original CD releases were so bad. The engineering here is extremely good, and the mix is really clear. Even if you have the old CD's, this one's well worth the few extra dollars for the improved sound quality.

A million miles from the po-faced, breast-beating histrionics of, say, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick offers a more tongue-in-cheek, cerebral vision of Rock n Roll. Heaven Tonight, their third album, has all the ingredients of outstanding power pop: catchy melodies, groovy harmonies, humor and superb guitar-playing. The opener, Surrender has already gone down in rock history as a classic, while several other songs - notably Auf Wiedersehn and Heaven Tonight - that are also stand-outs. It's a slice of power pop heaven to be sure BUT two things have to be taken into account: firstly, in my opinion the band's late-seventies-early eighties production has not aged well, and secondly, the remastered CD version still sounds strangely static compared with the vinyl. To sum up, then, highly recommended fare for lovers of good guitar pop.

In their powerful prime (first four studio albums + Live at Budokahn), Cheap Trick were second to none in the power pop sweepstakes. This is the best of that terrific lot. Great songs, great production, great execution. Sounds better than ever, thanks to the remastering. The two bonus tracks are neither here nor there, really, but who cares? The Trick were never this consistently good again...

dap

In 1977 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, my girlfriend and I went to see KISS and Cheap Trick. At this time they played a few songs from this album and when it was released the following year, it became an instant favorite. This by far is the best Cheap Trick, when they still sounded like themselves. Dream Police, released in 1979 is right up there with this one, then as the 80's hit I lost interest in Cheap Trick. Heaven Tonight still is one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time.

So, for those who feel that it's "dated", just close your eyes and take a trip back to 1978 and enjoy this classic piece of hard rockin' fun.

I bought this on LP when I was about fourteen (so, about six years ago), mostly because I thought Tom Petersson looked good. Well, he still does, but the album rocks too. If you like Cheap Trick (from the radio or wherever) you'll like this album. If you're a rock fan, you'll still like this album. When I scratched the record in the middle of "Heaven Tonight" (a great song), I went into a severe depression. Doesn't that say enough?

"Heaven Tonight" is well-known as a classic (Rolling Stone magazine picked it as one of the 50 all-time "coolest" albums), but what makes the record such a joy are all its surprises. "Takin' Me Back" slaps bitter lyrics onto an irresistibly sweet melody. "On the Radio" is a pure and simple ode to AM pop. "High Roller" is tough as nails while "How are You" wears a big, goofy vaudeville grin. The topper, of course, is the single you can't get enough of, the mighty "Surrender." A great album with stunning strength on the bench.

The sonic boom of Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight is second to none. It inspired a generation of Baby Boomers into Generation X's grunge. When Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight hit the streets 20 years ago it blew my speakers away. Despite being mis-marketed (the band has always been too eclectic for marketing weinies to define), time has proven this to be one of rocks greatest albumns, look at how just about every 70's anthology, movie or TV show has used 'Surrender' (Detroit Rock City, That 70s Show, Private Parts.) Personally I think thier version of 'California Man' is classic. 'On Top of the World', 'Heaven Tonight', and 'Auf Wiedersehen' are all-time favorites. The whole albumn is classic. Buy it, your life will be better because of it!