Track Listing

1. I Can't Take It
2. Borderline
3. I Don't Love Here Anymore
4. Next Position Please
5. Younger Girls
6. Dancing the Night Away
7. You Talk Too Much
8. 3-D
9. You Say Jump
10. Y.O.Y.O.Y.
11. Won't Take No for an Answer
12. Heaven's Falling
13. Invaders of the Heart
14. Don't Make Our Love a Crime

Product Details

• Released on: 2003-08-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Another outstanding Jon Brant influenced album of the '80's. Bring back Brant!
The first cut, a fine Robin Zander original
is also a very good video (see: Every Trick
in the Book). Other strong cuts here are:
Next Position Please, I Don't Love Here
Anymore, Y.O.Y.O.Y., Borderline, which is
superb Live and Dancing the Night Away, tho-
ugh Rundgren hated it; it had to be produced
by former O.O.O. co-producer Ian Taylor. It
was the second single from this album, I
beleive the only mistake here. The very
hard to find Live in Germany concert, 1:40
minutes, 25 songs, that kicked this tour
off is very good as well. The best work
they ever did. Three of the 'Trickster's
fav LP. Guess which three?

The pleasant early 80's surprise
In the liner notes to the box set, Rick mentioned that I Can't Take It was a number one hit down under and advised the American public to wake up. It's a sentiment that I wholly agree with on one hand, but also one that worries me on the other hand. After hitting the top 40 with the Dream Police and Voices from the Dream Police album, the band suddenly found themselves in a top 40 slump that lasted until the Lap Of Luxury vomit-fest. Despite four singles that seemed like sure fire hits in the 1980-83 time period (Everything Works If You Let It, Stop This Game, If You Want My Love, and I Can't Take It,) the band couldn't break a song into the top 40. While this doesn't say much for the musical tastes of the top 40 audience, it isn't really a bad thing considering that the next Cheap Trick song to have a chart impact was The Flame. Given the choice between the bowl-swirling nausea of Lap Of Luxury and Busted, I'll take the early 80's near misses in a heartbeat. Next Position Please and Heaven's Falling are two other songs from this album that have made every compilation I've ever made.

Great Album For Anyone Who Hated "Lap of Luxury"
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.