All Shook Up
	Produced by George Martin
	Released on 1980
	US CHART POSITION #24 . . . GOLD RECORD
	Find it at GEMM
FE 36498 cover [high resolution scan]

G eorge Martin and Cheap Trick: a marriage made in Heaven. Only, for a marriage to be successful, you’ve got to love yourself first, and Cheap Trick didn’t love themselves when they recorded All Shook Up. They were frustrated, angry, agitated. They didn’t want to be The Beatles anymore. As Tom Petersson’s departure showed, they didn’t even want to be a band anymore. And so this is where the magic spell ended, where the illusion was shattered, where Cheap Trick started to live down to their name in every treacly chorus. George Martin is a very talented producer but he’s also a very audible one. As a result, All Shook Up is overproduced and underinspired at the same time. The music, like the album artwork, is all over the place: from winsome (“I Love You Honey But I Hate Your Friends”) to wicked (“Go For The Throat”) to weird (“High Priest of Rhythmic Noise”). The pairing of Martin and Cheap Trick does deliver the great melodies you’d expect, but they’re buried in short choruses and last for less than fifteen seconds. With time, I could see where All Shook Up might have its champions; after all, it’s no worse than Aerosmith’s Night in the Ruts. But it’s a tease and, worse, it’s not at all what fans were expecting. Every album prior to this could be counted on for some great hooks. All Shook Up is wrapped in barbed wire. It’s an identity crisis at a time when the band’s identity was being frozen in carbon with the blessing of The Beatles’ producer. Ironically, comparisons to The Beatles are least applicable on All Shook Up. Instead, Cheap Trick sounds like an evil ELO (“Stop This Game,” “World’s Greatest Lover”) or Aerosmith (“Can’t Stop It But I’m Gonna Try”). I admire the band for refusing to be pigeonholed by Epic, but a turkey is still a turkey.

TRACK LISTING

1. STOP THIS GAME    (Robin Zander/Rick Nielsen)    3:54
2. JUST GOT BACK    2:04
3. BABY LOVES TO ROCK    3:17
4. CAN'T STOP IT BUT I'M GONNA TRY    3:30
5. WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER    4:50
6. HIGH PRIEST OF RHYTHMIC NOISE    4:10
7. LOVE COMES A-TUMBLIN' DOWN    3:06
8. I LOVE YOU HONEY BUT I HATE YOUR FRIENDS    3:49
9. GO FOR THE THROAT (USE YOUR IMAGINATION)    3:01
10. WHO D'KING    (Bun E. Carlos/Rick Nielsen)    2:16
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
11. EVERYTHING WORKS IF YOU LET IT
12. DAY TRIPPER (LIVE)
13. CAN'T HOLD ON (LIVE)
14. SUCH A GOOD GIRL (LIVE)
15. TAKE ME I'M YOURS (LIVE)
    
    Tracks 1-10 written by Rick Nielsen unless noted. All songs arranged by Cheap Trick except (1) by Cheap Trick/George Martin and (5) George Martin.

CREDITS

BUN E. CARLOS -- percussion
RICK NIELSEN -- guitars, microphones, ivories, art direction and design
TOM PETERSON (sic) -- basses
ROBIN ZANDER -- singers
Geoff Emerick -- engineer
Ria Lewerke-Shapiro -- art direction and design
Moshe Brakha -- photography

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