 Cheap Trick I might be a bit more open minded toward this CD had Greg Kot not written the liner notes. Kot may be the worst critic out there, and knowing he digs this album is almost enough to make me declare it the worst album ever made, simply for spite. Of course, the music stands distinct from any fool's assessement of it, and so … and so, wait a minute, I just negated any credibility I might have had for the rest of the review. Oh well, here I go again, to quote David Coverdale. Cheap Trick's first album is a fairly solid power pop album with plenty of hooks and attitude, although there's not a whole lot of it that has relevance to me personally. It's easy to see why so many bands credit Cheap Trick as an influence: the band rocks their pop hard, and Robin Zander's lead singer persona is thoroughly engaging even when he's singing lines like "So you're missing school/You know school's for fools/Today money rules." It's not totally clear whether they thought this was cool at the time, but I'm willing to believe that there's a fair amount of sarcasm behind that, I mean behind the idea that they'd put that across as a hard rock lyric. Cheap Trick may have been a joke rock band, or perhaps they were just a rock band. There is a humorous edge to it that excuses some of the wankier moments. Much has been written of Rick Nielsen's guitar prowess, and it's on display all over this album, but after awhile I was sort of wanting "The Flame." At this point in their career, the band seemed to be best at ripping off other songs, much like they get ripped off now by younger bands in rock's great cannibalistic tradition. "Taxman, Mr. Thief" is a pointless "homage" (ripoff) of the Beatles' "Taxman," attempting to utilize the theory that if you namecheck the original in your ripoff, people will let it pass as an "homage." Not me. It's a ripoff. "The Ballad of TV Violence" is a rewrite of John Lennon's "I Don't Want to be a Soldier," and not all that good of one, although the original was no great shakes either. There are some definite highlights, though: "Oh, Candy" (what Cheap Trick does best: hard pop, rather than hard rock), "Hot Love,"' "Mandocello" (pretty, somewhat groovin' late-night pop song … um, that's the best I could describe it), "He's a Whore" (more good pop). Too much of the album, though, centers on sex-fixated ideas and empty testosterone-fueled daydreams ("Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School," "Hot Love," "ELO Kiddies"). The CD is made quite a bit better by the bonus tracks included, five outtakes that deflate the "classic" status enough so that you can see this as a good, but not great, debut album, which is what it is. "Lovin' Money" is more testosterone, an unreleased early take of "I Want You to Want Me" (later included on the band's third album, In Color) is very good (still one of their best songs, by far). "Lookout" is poppy, "You're All Talk" is rocky, and "I Dig Go-Go Girls" is plain funny, including the wonderful lines "I drink til I stink" and "I dig racist movies." Ultimately, Cheap Trick is a good rock album, but it's still a rock album. I'm sure a ton of people revere it, and that's cool too. I'll stick to Call and Response, though, if I want pop from the 'C' section. Speaking of popping from the 'C' section … ah, never mind.
Review by Wimpsom Turl |