Sex, America, Cheap Trick (1996)


 


Disc One
  1.Hello There
  2.ELO Kiddies
  3.Hot Love
  4.Oh, Candy
  5.Mandocello
  6.Lovin' Money
  7.I Want You To Want Me (early version)
  8.Southern Girls
  9.So Good To See You
 10.Down On The Bay
 11.Please Mrs. Henry
 12.Violins
 13.Ballad Of T.V. Violence (Live)
 14.You're All Talk (Live)
 15.Fan Club

Disc Two
 16.Surrender
 17.High Roller
 18.On Top Of The World
 19.Auf Weidersehen
 20.I Want You To Want Me (Live)
 21.Clock Strikes Ten (Live)
 22.Dream Police
 23.Way Of The World
 24.Gonna Raise Hell
 25.Voices
 26.Stop This Game
 27.Just Got Back
 28.Baby Loves To Rock
 29.Everything Works If You Let It
 30.World's Greatest Lover (Demo)
 31.Waitin' For The Man

Disc Three
 32.Day Tripper (Live)
 33.World's Greatest Lover
 34.I Need Love
 35.I'm The Man
 36.Born To Raise Hell
 37.Ohm Sweet Ohm
 38.She's Tight
 39.Love's Got A Hold On Me
 40.If You Want My Love (Alternate Version)
 41.Lookin' Out For Number One
 42.Don't Make Our Love A Crime (Demo Version)
 43.All I Really Want
 44.I Can't Take It
 45.Twisted Heart
 46.Invaders Of The Heart
 47.Y.O.Y.O.Y.

Disc Four
 48.Tonight It's You
 49.Cover Girl
 50.This Time Around
 51.A Place In France
 52.Funk #9
 53.Take Me To The Top
 54.Money Is The Route Of All Fun
 55.Fortune Cookie
 56.You Want It
 57.The Flame
 58.Through The Night
 59.Stop That Thief
 60.I Know What I Want (Live)
 61.Had To Make You Mine
 62.I Can't Understand It
 63.Can't Stop Falling Into Love
 64.Come On Christmas

 

Five years after they terminated their relationship with Epic records, their old company decided to offer a comprehensive box set of the bands up-and-down career. As box sets go, this one is pretty much par for the course. The band never had a plethora of hits, so there's a lot of space to fill with songs that may or may not be a fan's favorites. Most of the hits are here (but it's missing Don't Be Cruel. Why?) and there are tons of unreleased extras.

It could be argued that there's a bit too much filler here, but whittling down this four CD collection to three maybe making too many drastic cuts. Not surprisingly, the earliest material (The set is sequential) on disc one and half of disc 2 is the best. The first disc is solely their first two albums with some nice rare unreleased songs done live. By the time they reach their 80's material at the middle of the second disc, the quality, unsurprisingly is seriously compromised. Since a lot of the music that was released wasn't that good, it shouldn't be to big of a surprise that the unreleased stuff is pretty awful as well. Particularly bad are Born to Raise Hell and I'm the Man. Two versions of World's Greatest Lover are two too many as well.

By the time we reach the "comeback" stage, things brighten up slightly and it's a little ironic that some of the unreleased material from this time frame sounds as good (or better) that what was released. Even with a lot of less-than-bright moments, the package will be valued by most hardcore fans.

Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review