All Shook Up [Bonus Tracks]by Anonymous
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September 05, 2006:
"Dream Police" was not a good Cheap Trick album. The arrangements became fussy, the songwriting too busy, and the whole thing sounds like cashing in on a moment. Well O.K. who can blame the guys for that. Still, after the sonic thunder and pure pop delight of "Heaven Tonight" the follow up was a let down. All Shook Up is a record that is lost between the desire to continue down a road I would like to think was a label dictate, and a desire to get back to basics (how many times have you heard that about a band?). Or, perhaps the band was trying to "expand" with Dream Police, and got scared when it didn't work? In any event "All Shook Up" offers three reasonable tunes - 'Stop this Game', 'Baby Likes to Rock', and 'Everything Works if You Let It'. The rest is sub-par though better than most pop bands these days. Should you buy it? Yeah why not its better than Artic Monkeys (though not better than Kaiser Chiefs). Even mediocre Chjeap Trick is worth a listen. Tom Petersson left after this album to be replaced by someone who looked alot like him and held the fort till he returned.
This review was written about the CD edition.