Cheap Trick [Original recording remastered]

I don't ramble, who really want's to read my crap? I get to the point,make my reviews as SHORT as possible.This CD being their first, does lack some of the future "Cheap Trick" super songs! Still good but NOT the "Cheap Trick", we soon began to know and love.They came along way, doing their own songs and several "BEATLE" music as well. Cheap Trick has to be one of the most diversified groups around. It doesn't matter if it's their songs, or that of some else, they always do a GREAT job!!!!!

Just about any Cheap Trick fan, obsessive or not, would be quick to agree that for better or worse, their prime came right during their first releases in the late '70s. The general consesus, of course, is that "at Budokan" is the best live album and "Heaven Tonight" is the best studio album. However, I'm going to be frank and admit that although "In Color," "Heaven Tonight," and "Dream Police" are classic power pop, I really don't listen to them all that much these days. I heared "Heaven Tonight" and "Dream Police" first, but once I heared "In Color," that became my favorite. Then I heared the first album, and I knew my mind was made up. No offense to the band, but the first album proves that subsequent studio albums didn't really need all that polished production. Some bands just sound better with all their raw,rough edges intact and Cheap Trick proved they were one of those bands with "at Budokan." No offense intended to those who disagree, but the next time any Trick fanatic finds the sugar-coated gloss of the other early albums hindering the enjoyment of the songs, they should return to the debut, which will always be the studio album that rocked the hardest. The standout tracks for me are "Elo Kiddies," "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School," "Taxman, Mr. Thief," and "He's a Whore." The other tracks are great too and have grown on me with time. The only track I have a minor qualm with is "Mondecello," which, while a decent song by itself, breaks up the flow of the album and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the rockers. So pick it up; surely it's one of the more underrated debuts of '77.

Pretty audacious, all things considered, and there is a lot to consider. For one thing, this was originally released in 1977 along with the Sex Pistols' NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS and The Bee Gees/Robert Stigwood's SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. Quite a year, eh? And it still holds up after all these years. Producer Jack Douglas fortunately opted for a raw, live sound that sounds loud no matter how much you turn it down. The songs are top notch and it's a shame that there is no lyric sheet because the lyrics are almost overly intelligent, ranging from the junk culture critique 'The Ballad Of TV Violence' to the exquisite in-lust ode 'Mandocello' to suicide in 'Oh, Candy'. (There seems to be a Beatles fixation as well; 'Taxman' and 'Any Time At All' come immediately to mind and there are others; spot your own.) The 'problem' is that so much of this is so tongue-in-cheek that it's easy to take none of it seriously. The bonus tracks are good but not essential, although the early version of 'I Want You To Want Me' is interesting if only because it shows that Letters To Cleo added exactly nothing to it in their remake, whereas Cheap Trick did. Songs I like: 'Taxman, Mr Thief' (an ode to Harrison's ode and, for my money, even better); 'Oh, Candy' (beautifully melodic and bittersweet and with a brief but awesome guitar solo); 'He's A Whore' (punkier than The Lurkers, heh heh); 'Mandocello' ('I could be you lover, let's pretend'); 'The Ballad Of TV Violence' (reputedly an anti-ode to Richard Speck). Songs I don't like: 'The Coward Of The County'; 'Big Rock Candy Mountain'; 'Hey, Jude'; and boy am I glad they aren't on this CD!