Next Position Please

Next Position Please found Cheap Trick aiming to right the ship a little bit, both by partially drawing on a variety of older songs that had that been demoed but never formally recorded while getting Todd Rundgren to produce, understandable given his own clear love for melody and loudness. The result’s more enjoyable than most of the band’s up and down 80s output; Jon Brant plays bass throughout for the first time and, especially in the band-approved ‘authorized edition’ from 2006, songs like “Y.O.Y.O.Y.” and the sparkling “I Can’t Take It” shine strong.