Standing on the Edge (1985)


 
1.Little Sister 2.Tonight it's You 3.She's Got Motion 4.Love Comes 5.How About You 6.Standing on the Edge 7.This Time Around 8.Rock All Night 9.Cover Girl 10.Wild Wild Women

 

Most Classic Rock bands that are still around today that managed to persevere the 1980s probably look back with regret at a lot of material they put out during the decade of skinny ties and parachute pants. What made it tougher for Cheap Trick was that no one was really paying much attention to them during this time. By this point, they had been regulated to playing small clubs and state fairs, which had to be a let down since they were headlining arenas just a few short years ago. To be honest, though, they had a lot of good stuff during this decade. This album was yet another radical change in direction from their last release - or anything else that they had done recently, for that matter.

Most were probably excited that original producer Jack Douglas (who produced the superb Cheap Trick in 1977) was back at the controls, yet this one doesn't sound anything like their debut. The theme here seems to be "party rock". Let's just have a good time and rock the night away. Witness some of the titles - Rock All Night, She's Got Motion and Wild Wild Women. They pretty much throw caution out the window and just have a good time. It's easy to be critical. No, it didn't sound anything like their glory days, it had a lot of 80's bells and whistles, and of course - nobody bought it. It's even out of print as of this writing.

But if you just try to enjoy the record, it does not disappoint. All the songs on here are at best, great, and at worse, listenable. In addition to the above mentioned songs (all of which are great party tunes), Little Sister is a great in-your-face album opener, Cover Girl is a great tune with some awesome guitar riffs and Tonight It's You probably could have been a hit single had it been released in another place, in another time.

Of course, it was obvious that their record label was losing patience. They brought in an outside writer, Mark Raddice (that's what I said - "who?") to collaborate with the band and they even misprinted Rick Nielson's name on the album (N-e-l-s-o-n). So the band probably felt like a neglected step child. The best way to listen to this album is to forget what it could have sounded like, and just enjoy how it does sound - pretty decent. Especially for 1985.


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