Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

1979

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Dream Police  2. Way of the World  3. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems)  4. Gonna Raise Hell  5. I'll Be with You Tonight  6. Voices  7. Writing on the Wall  8. I Know What I Want  9. Need Your Love

CD Bonus Tracks:  10. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems) (live)  11. Way of the World (live)  12. Dream Police (No Strings Version)  13. I Know What I Want (live)
 

After hitting their commercial home-run with "At Budokan,"  Cheap Trick quickly followed up with "Dream Police."
It's hard to talk any trash about this album because there's no much excellent material here...Let me put it this way...Every single song on here under the 7 and a half minute mark is a pure gold!



So let's start with the good...I fell like the title track is where all the potential inherent in Cheap Trick's sound is realized to its fullest...Feverish, thrilling, orchestral rock with  an embarrassing overload of killer hooks...The high point of the song is the paranoid break, where Rick takes over the lead vocals that leads into that brilliantly twisted (and melodic solo...It's just the best shit ever...Everything you could ever want in a pop single and so much more...



"Voices" is another favorite of mine. This one was also a successful single, but you don't really hear it on radio anymore, but it's one of their most enjoyable and beautifully sung ballads...Intricately produced and tastefully played...Compare this to "The Flame" and weep bitter tears...

"I Know What I Want" turns the Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK" into bubblegum pop..This never fails to bring a smile to my face...Same with the bouncy and enthusiastic "Writing on the Wall."

The album would go up a few notches in my book, if they would have left "Need Your Love" and "Gonna Raise Hell" on the cutting room floor...They're both absurdly long ("Gonna Raise Hell" clocking in at a mind-numbing 9 and a half minutes...) and both are little more than repetitive vamps...Basically, "Gonna Raise Hell" resembles some sort of 12" disco mega-mix and "Need Your Love" functioned fine in a live setting on "At Budokan," but the studio recording is a real snooze...

I think they should have spent another month writing songs for the album or extended the right tracks (imagine a 10 minute "Dream Police!" Now, that would be something...Add a few more sections...Hell, get all prog and devote a whole side to it...)  Do what I do and skip the two overlong tracks and you have the best EP ever recorded...

Let's check out "Voices" by Cheap Trick...Enjoy...