Customer Reviews

Next Position Please

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock (Cheap Trick landed at #25), respected sound engineer and recent CT producer Rob Albini described the group's music as having "moments of rage and ugliness and power...but there are also things about it that are genuinely very pretty and elegant." This album is their "elegant" side (or as elegant as a blistering power-pop band can get anyway).
Like all of their string of commercially-failed 80s albums, "Next Position Please" is a real gem, and a worthwhile reward for anyone who gives panned albums a chance. Renowned pop producing expert Todd Rundgren was brought on board to man the switches, a move that many say is to be given credit for the album's accessibility. On Cheap Trick's previous "failed" album, "One On One," there were subtle hints that their commercial slide was interfering with the confidence in their music, but that's certainly not the case with "Next Position Please." Cheap Trick sounds determined and focused, despite what shows up in many CT bios. The title track sounds like it was written during the band's glory days of the late 70s, and Rundgren's glossy production actually works on 'Y.O.Y.O.Y.', 'I Can't Take It' (Trick at their most sincere), and the album's best track, 'I Don't Love Here Anymore' (which is complete with Beatles-like backing vocals). It's also obvious that the group were trying to regain a younger, modern audience with songs like 'You Talk To Much' and 'Heaven's Falling.' A wildly left-center version of 'Dancing the Night Away' meanwhile, can be seen as only Cheap Trick being their erratic, oddball selves.
Many complain that "Next Position Please" is much too pop-oriented to sound like vintage Cheap Trick; but whoever thinks that can compare this record to their 1988 'comeback' "Lap of Luxury," an album the band members themselves criticize, in which the group was forced to bring in outside songwriters. So in that light, "Next Position Please" is the more Cheap Trick-sounding substitute for "Lap of Luxury." As for this album's commercial stance, the next position for Cheap Trick would be a disappointing peak at number 61.

Coming after the success of One on One, and perhaps especially the ballad "If You Want My Love"'s success, it was inevitable (and perhaps the right time even) for Cheap Trick to let up a little on the throttle in its music. Songs like Y.O.Y.O.Y and the top 40 pop of "Dancing The Night Away" and "Heaven's Falling" (the first too sappy, the second a song that seems forced on the band, and luckily, the third a wonderfully produced, heartfelt number) showed the band was trying to broaden its appeal after seven albums. While the band does hit and miss on some of this material, some other songs like "Borderline," "I Can't Take It," and "Next Position Please" are vintage rock/pop on the Trick's level, which is higher than most ANY other band. Throw in some fiercely rocking tunes like "Won't Take No For An Answer," "3-D," and "Invaders of the Heart," (where you can hear Rick Neilsen count to 24!) this is underrated (like everything past "Budokan") fun rock. Certainly worth a listen!

Had "Heaven's Falling" been the lead single, this record would have returned Cheap Trick to the pop firmament. That's because it's actually a Todd Rundgren record with Robin Zander singing lead, delivering what is probably his greatest vocal performance ever. Pretty much everything else is prime Rundgren: monstrous yet melodic guitar, background choruses that go on for days, and one irresistable hook after another. Pure pop perfection of a type almost never heard these days.

Y.O.Y.O.Y. is both the name of a song on NEXT POSITION PLEASE and the question I'd like producer Todd Rundgren to answer. Why, Todd, did you turn Rick Nielsen's famously nasty guitar down and slap a dumptruck load of schlack all over a batch of nifty Trick tunes??? Can't change the past, of course. But you can pick through the glossy production here and find some gems ... chiefly the title track. What a fabulous song! Sounds like a pop-metal meditation on reincarnation put across with tremendous energy. I CAN'T TAKE IT is another winner. The most maligned track is DANCIN' THE NIGHT AWAY, but it's a bum rap. DANCIN' is a rockin' tune played with winning conviction.

Todd Rundgren is an excellent producer (I refer the reader to the Badfinger album Straight Up, which he did in conjunction with George Harrison,) and he really lets the band shine here. The album itself is very tuneful. "I Can't Take It" showed that Robin Zander could write just as well as Rick Nielsen. The album's rude title track was originally intended for the Dream Police album, believe it or not. It shows, as it is the hardest rocking track on the record. I originally heard my dad's copy on vinyl, minus "You Talk Too Much" and "Don't Make Our Love A Crime." Those two are okay, the first one sounds Who-ish, for the latter I'd say the demo version on the boxed set is better. Apart from "Dancing The Night Away" there isn't a bad song here. It's a great album to listen to while in love ("Borderline," "YOYOY," "Heaven's Falling,") or when you're not ("I Don't Love Here Anymore," "I Can't Take It," "Next Position Please.") Many people complain about the pristine sound. I say it's good, especially in contrast to One On One. It's my second fave Trick album, tied with the first album, second to Dream Police. Listen to it-the proof's in the pudding. God Bless.

The choice of Todd Rundgren as producer of CT's Next Position Please seemed like an inspired one, as he has worked magic on many other LP's, from Badfinger's Straight Up to XTC's Skylarking, but somehow things didn't quite work out this time around.

Rundgren has stripped Rick's guitar sound of all it's bite. Although the playing is as stellar as ever, the production has effectively neutered their sound, robbing it of any balls that it may have had.

Having said that, all is not lost. There are some very strong songs here, and Rundgren's production works well on a few of them, especially the album's opener "I Can't Take It", "Borderline" and the pure pop delicacy, "Heavens Falling." Many of the other tracks are very good songs that would have benefited from a more aggressive guitar sound that was typical of their earlier albums, but that does not mean that they are a total waste.

So in conclusion, this may not be CT's best album, but it is also not their worst. That distinction goes to The Doctor, which is their only one star effort.

After doing "One On One" (a powerful album both in sound and nature), I expected an even greater CHEAP TRICK album. While not a monumental failure, "Next Position Please" tones down everything "One On One" had achieved. The guitar sound is inexplicably mellow and even hard oriented rockers like "Invaders From The Heart" sound tame. Although CHEAP TRICK was never an all-out Heavy Metal band, they always had that "edge" that made them relevent among the hard rock crowd. Producer Todd Rundgren might be the one to blame here, as he tried to make a sixties sounding album in the eighties. The overall feel of "Next Position Please" is subdued, but that's not to say it lacks memorable moments. "I Can't Take It" opens the album with the memorable and catchy hooks the band is best known for as well as the title track. "Won't Get No For An Answer" has that typical "Beatle-esque" melody that makes the song a winner but these good spots are few and far in between. Apparently CHEAP TRICK realized this and came back the chunky sounding "Standing On The Edge".

Well, you would think that this was a match made in musical heaven. On hindsight, given the excellent production that Rundgren afforded such pop/metal exports as The Purssuit of Happiness the question mark grows even larger. Being a big fan of Rockford's best export, upon release I was hoping for the best. However, there was much trepidation since the band had released the woefully compromised affairs since their departure with producer Tom Werman; George Martin (The Beatles)and Roy Thomas Baker (Queen). Who knows who's to blame here, but Next Position Please sounds like a warm up to the real affair. "I Can't Take It" jumps off the record with warmth, but lacks the punch that Cheap Trick is known for. From there the band grinds through some fine tunes, none of which really ever seem to get going. Fortunately, the band does leap off the album for one very fine, penned by Todd song, "Heaven's Falling". Even though the chord structures are atypical of Nielsen, the Cheap Trick sound makes the song among one of the best they ever committed to tape (What happened on the box set...that is another story). Go buy it if you have everything Cheap Trick recorded up to Dream Police, and may have stumbled on their last two studio relases, Cheap Trick and Special One.

"Next Position Please" is an interesting album. As far as songs go there are some great ones on here. However, as far as production goes, it is not so good. Todd Rundgren, who produced the album wanted to get Cheap Trick away from Whoish-bomb-bast, and strip them down to barebones. There are some moments where this works, like on, "Won't Take No For an Answer," Invaders of the Heart," and the title track but most of the time it just falls flat on it's face. What "Next Postion Please" needed was stronger production, dare I say fuzzy guitars, and fat walking basslines Instead we get washed out guitar sounds, and tiney sounding bass lines. Having heard the majority of these songs live I can say that they were made to be played loud, and fast, not slow and restrained.(To see, or rather hear, what I mean listen to the live version of "I Can't Take It, for 1999's Music for Hangovers).
Also their label, Epic, started to flex their muscles on the creative control aspects of things by forcing the band to cover The Motors' "Dancing the Night Away." I believe it was either "record this song or we shelve the album". I have heard the songs that were thrown off this album for "Dancing the Night Away", and it just goes to prove that at that time, and probably now, record execs have not a clue about what is good and bad, only what they think will sell -- and most of the time they are well off the mark on both. Maybe if record companies like Epic nutured bands and tried to develop them instead of using the assembly line approach with them, then the record industry would not be in the sad and sorry state they it is in now. Anyhoo, this could have been a classic, right up there with anything that the Rolling Stones or the Beatles did if produced right, instead it is a mixed bag of great songs produced wrong. I have always said that if Cheap Trick could come out with an album of songs as good as the ones on Next Position Please, with the strong production of All Shook Up, it would be a wonder to behold, well check out their self titled album from 1997 to see what I mean.

I give it five stars just for I dont' live here any more. Boy, now that song rocks. Even my sister Caitlyn loves that tune homeys. My uncle Curts got the tape (yeah, he don't have a CD player) and we jam it on in the trans am!!! With the top down, and caitlyn think she brittany spears. My uncle curtis get us into a lot of this old music cause he grew up on it and he think the music of our generation is not any good. Yo, C, hows about some Radiohead or Nirvarna. So grab this one, crank it up and sing "I don't want to live her any more!!" at the top of you're lungs and hopefully you have a relative with no job and a trans am and you spend your weekends cruisin downtown and blare away all the other homeys with some real old schook. And everytime the last song is over all three of us at the same time say next position please and go to the other side and we rock out some more. Hey it beats Bon Govi.