Cheap Trick

...very best album!

I orig. bought this RECORD in December 1979. I rate Cheap Trick's debut album w/ 5 Stars. I would like to offer my reviews & opinions, of each song:1. "ELO Kiddies"...I like this song quite well, it's pretty good.2. "Daddy Should Have Stayed In High School"...Was I ever recently SHOCKED to discover that "Daddy" was about a pedophile. I always thought that the lyrics were always a little HARD to understand @ times. So therefore, I NEVER really picked up on this song's TRUE meaning. However, I love the music & the slower beat to this otherwise, decent song.3. "Taxman, Mr. Thief"...This is one hell of a great song, I think. Powerful vocals & music.4. "Cry, Cry"...I like this song.5. "Oh, Candy...This song is passable, only.6. "Hot Love"...I love this song, very much. It has a great beat to it.7. "Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace"...Cheap Trick DIDN'T write this song. I love this song a GREAT deal & I esp. love the drumming. Just like the song "Daddy", the lyrics are a little HARD for me to understand, @ times. The song title "Speak Now...." is NEVER mentioned throughout the song.8. "He's A Whore"...I always wondered why this song wasn't titled as "Anytime @ All", as it's mentioned a lot MORE than "He's A Whore". This song always seemed SO familiar, when I first bought this album. Maybe, just maybe, it was a brief hit on the radio. Just like "Hot Love", I love the beat on this song, along w/ everything else.9. "Mandocello"...This song is so much DIFFERENT from the rest. It is real enjoyable & nice to listen to. I like this song, quite well.10. "The Ballad Of TV Violence (I'm Not The Only Boy)"...This song has it's moments. It's okay, until you get to the END & it always seems to drive me nuts. This is my LEAST favorite on this album. I do, however, like the drumming, though.BONUS TRACKS:11. "Lovin' Money"...This song is okay, not a favorite.12. "I Want You To Want Me"...A previously unreleased version & its pretty good.13. "Lookout"...I remember this song from the "Live In Budokan" album & I like this, very much.14. "You're All Talk"...I also remember THIS song from Cheap Trick's 2nd album "In Color". As in the song "He's A Whore" (title wise), I'm surprised that "You're All Talk", ISN'T called "Please Don't Go", INSTEAD. I've always like this song a lot.15. "I Dig Go-Go Girls"... It's okay, but again it's NOT a favorite.Cheap Trick songs can remind me a lot of songs that Sweet, of "Ballroom Blitz" fame, could be good on. I think that BOTH groups sound a little similar, & they are BOTH EXCELLENT in my honest opinion. This album is highly recommended & I bought my CD version, of this DEBUT album, on April 6, 2013 from Amazon.Com & plus I STILL also have this ORIG. record.

This debut album is rawer than the studio releases that followed, both musically and lyrically. Although not every song rocks hard, the album overall rocks consistently.It's more controversial in terms of subject matter and in many ways presents dueling themes that Cheap Trick would return to again and again over the course of their most popular years, between 1979 and the late 80s to early 90s -- a combination of cynicism and lasciviousness on the one hand, and idealistic romanticism on the other*.Musically, in terms of hard rock with pop and punk sensibilities, you can't go wrong here. In that respect, Cheap Trick and The Cars sort of straddled the rock/pop/punk switchover in the late 70s/early 80s, with chart topping results (though Robin Zander never lost the long hair, lol).Cheap Trick sound more garage-band here than they do again until Budokan (and the never released bootlegged Steve Albini re-recording of In Color). But this is a garage band of consummate musicians who play together note-perfectly and whose songs are catchy, hook-loaded, hummable, singable, and get your toes tapping (if not getting you dancing around and secretly air-guitaring when no one can see you)."More sensitive listeners" probably won't like the subject matter here. Dark cynicism is apparent in songs like ELO Kiddies, Taxman Mr. Thief; the lasciviousness of He's A Whore, and The Ballad Of TV Violence, etc. The romanticism is apparent in songs like Oh Candy and Mandocello. The latter is simply beautiful. Even if you don't like the rest of the album, is a clear standout. (I like the rest of the album, so it's just one more great song among an entire record of awesome rockers).Casual fans who don't own this and haven't heard it before but prefer albums like In Color, Next Position Please, or Lap of Luxury probably won't like this very much. Casual fans who prefer At Budokan!, Woke Up With A Monster, the 1997 Cheap Trick, or Rockford will like this album.The bonus tracks are great as well.Of course serious Cheap Trick fans will love it.*For the female listener, this results in an occasionally disconcerting accumulation of songs over the years that swing wildly between putting women and romance on an idealistic pedestal... and lasciviously describing women's sexual desires and attributes in fairly, well, whorish language. But since Cheap Trick also wrote songs about smarmy, sleazy men, I've never considered them misogynistic in the way some of their contemporaries came across -- when they're cynical and lascivious, they're cynical and lascivious about *everyone* equally, like it's just portrayal of the human condition. Plus some of it is clearly satire (for example, I Dig Go-Go Girls).

Cheap Trick are one of those bands that perform basic rock n roll, but have always done it in a way that sounds like no one else. The band consisted of the two poster boys Robin Zander (vocals, guitar) and Tom Peterson (bass), teamed up with two total geeks in Bun. E. Carlos (drums) and the every unique Rick Neilson (guitars). This foursome has been able to carve a nice little niche for themselves in the pop rock world over the years and it all started with this their debut album. This one is far from the band's best, but broke them out of the box as a band to be reckoned with sporting a totally new take on Beatles influenced rock n roll. The first half of this album is great with quirky songs like "Elo Kiddies", "Daddy Should Have Stayed In High School", "TaxMan, Mr. Thief" with it's obvious ode to the Beatles, "Cry Cry" and "Oh Candy" all great tunes. The second half of the album is not nearly as strong to my ears and seems to come off as a bit more conventional. Overall this was a decent debut from the band and a preview of what they would do down the line.

Not to be confused with their self titled debut album, Cheap Trick (97) is classic Cheap Trick. The band went with a small indie label and made an album the way they wanted it to sound, without all the corporate major label interference trying to make CT sound like a ballad band.It's tragic that Red Ant Records went belly up right when this album came out. This album is right up there with their first three albums IMHO. If you don't have it. Get it.

This is a must for every serious rock music fan.

le plus hard des album du groupe

Terrific album. Released just as record label went bust, so largely unnoticed, but worth seeking out

まさに原点です。一聴の価値あり。