Quote:
Originally Posted by almauro
I got Essential 3.0, and the first disc is perfect. It's all 70s Cheap Trick, and without doubt is the best single disc comp of the band out there. The second disk gets into the 80s and it just suffers in comparison. The edge in Rick Nielson songwriting isn't there anymore. The bonus third disk suffers in the same way. The first half consisting of 70s material is great, then it becomes generic. I don't know if they got bad advise or the flame, so to speak, went out. Anyway, the first disk of this is highly recommendable, and if your a fan, it's kind of nice to have both eras separated like this. It invites analysis into what happened to this great band.
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I checked the track listing on there and the first two discs run in chrono order. As you say the first disk is perfect BUT the first several songs on disk two are also great, as it has the rest of the songs from
Dream Police and
All Shook Up album, two classic albums. Their career took a total nose-dive with the
Next Position Please album, an absolute pile of rubbish. From there they gradually lost control of things even though I liked the next two albums. By the time of "The Flame" the record label enforced outside songwriters on them. 1994's
I Woke Up With a Monster was something of a return to form. Disk three on that collection is superb as well.