Review Summary: A questionable comeback
And so,
The Doctor, widely recognized as a thorn in Cheap Trick’s discography, turned out to be not that bad. Although, it also cannot be regarded as misunderstood and underappreciated. It definitely deserves its place among the weakest releases from the band, but it is not the worst. Clearly, a doubtful achievement.
Today it is the turn of
Lap of Luxury, the album which many call a release that helped Cheap Trick to get back into the limelight. It also achieved something the label desired for so long – the band recorded a hit song,
The Flame, that crawled its way up to the top of the US Billboard Hot 100. Yes, they got that in the bag. Although it did cost them quite some time and multiple weak albums, they made it.
It would seem there is a valid explanation for that. The thing is that the label insisted on Cheap Trick collaborating with outside songwriters. (Which is understandable, to be honest: on
The Doctor the band sounded like they themselves barely remembered what they were supposed to sound like.) The label got their wish: only ONE track on
Lap of Luxury,
Never Had a Lot to Lose, was written by the band members. All others involved professional songwriters, except for two, which are covers.
This is where we encounter the main crux. Yes, it is commendable that the album demonstrated considerable commercial success, and it is great that Cheap Trick managed to produce a hit (it only took about 10 years). But can it be viewed as an artistic success?
Let’s take the hopeless
The Flame. Seriously, this is easily one of the most banal and undistinguished tracks the band ever recorded at this point. A horribly unremarkable melody and melodramatic vocals are definitely a recipe for success among a less discerning audience. But when assessed within the framework of the band’s discography, it would bring an inevitable question: where is Cheap Trick, I beg your pardon? Where are the angular riffs and weird sense of humor? Before, the band sang about me wanting you to want me; now it produces banalities about the flame or even the wrong side of love. I mean, really?
And such reservations can be made for practically every track on the album. All of these sweet synth lines and generic guitars on, say, a song like
No Mercy astound with their calculated nature.
Let Go is so typical for the band’s 1980s output.
Ghost Town is practically a
The Flame 2.0, attempting to push the same buttons, but with even less success.
Lap of Luxury turned out to be so toothless, with everything fine and shiny, but also nondescript. Even
The Doctor had the eponymous track,
Rearview Mirror Romance, and
Man-U-Lip-U-Lator. And on this album, only two cuts,
Space and
Don’t Be Cruel – both covers – are somewhat memorable. The funny thing is that it is on these two tracks the band reminds us of what they used to sound like. I guess
Never Had a Lot to Lose, the above-mentioned
Wrong Side of Love,
All We Need Is a Dream, and
All Wound Up, with its intro resembling
The Who’s
My Generation, are kind of worth mentioning, as they demonstrate some energy, but they are far from remarkable.
As it turns out,
Lap of Luxury is a product, first and foremost, recorded to satisfy the label. On the other hand, we can thank the Universe it became commercially successful; otherwise, it would have been difficult to assume where the band would have ended up. Still, from an artistic perspective, the downward trajectory continued for Cheap Trick.
