Cheap Trick is the quintessential \u201970s rock band.<\/p>\n
Think about it: you have your fashion-model prototypes in vocalist\/guitarist Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson, your blue-collar chain-smoking (at least back then) drummer in Bun E. Carlos, and your off-the-wall goofball in guitarist Rick Nielsen, all while you\u2019re wearing your musical influences on your sleeves while trying to carve out your own unique niche.<\/p>\n
This formula shouldn\u2019t have worked… but, for a brief time, it was hugely successful. Listening to Cheap Trick\u2019s 1977 debut effort, one can hear the promise the band had… even though it\u2019s still lacking in some areas.<\/p>\n
The first thing that hits the listener in the face is the strength of Peterssen\u2019s bass lines. Combined with Carlos\u2019s solid timekeeping, a strong foundation is laid for these 10 offerings. Listen to \u201cElo Kiddies\u201d and just feel the locomotive-like rhythm laid down; all Nielsen and Zander needed to do was add on the pop-rock layer of sweetness (countered with surprisingly biting lyrics).<\/p>\n
The next thing that one hears are the musical influences. A little bit here borrowed from The Beatles, a little there lifted from The Who, and maybe a smidgen of The Kinks thrown in for added texture? Why not? What Cheap Trick<\/i> does well is they don\u2019t merely mimic their musical heroes, they work them into their own formula.<\/p>\n
Where this disc slips for me is there isn\u2019t enough attention paid to Zander\u2019s vocals (and, subsequently, lyrics primarily written by Nielsen). There are some important messages in songs like \u201cDaddy Should Have Stayed In High School,\u201d had they been brought forward more in the mix by producer Jack Douglas.<\/p>\n
Cheap Trick<\/i> features a band still discovering who they were and where they fit into the whole scene. So, you\u2019re not going to find the huge hits on this one. You will, however, find tracks such as \u201cThe Ballad Of T.V. Violence (I\u2019m Not The Only Boy),\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s A Whore,\u201d \u201cTaxman (Mr. Thief)\u201d and the hauntingly beautiful \u201cMandocello.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Other than the lyrics losing power, the biggest flaw with this disc is it\u2019s not always the easiest disc to listen to. These songs require you to pay attention; a casual listen will leave you thinking there was no substance to this disc. I know… I made that mistake when I was younger, and even found myself struggling while listening to it for this review.<\/i><\/p>\n
I realize I\u2019m overlooking the bonus tracks thrown on to the reissue… honestly, they do little to add to the original disc, so I\u2019d rather focus on the album as it was released (even though I agree reversing the sides so \u201cElo Kiddies\u201d led things off on the reissue was the correct move).<\/i><\/p>\n
All in all, Cheap Trick<\/i> does prove itself to be a solid first step for the lads from Rockford, Illinois\u2014if one is willing to put the time and attention needed into it. And, perhaps, that\u2019s the reason it just missed denting the Billboard<\/i> charts\u2014it demanded that the listener actually think.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5736],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-47046","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-cheap-trick","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47046"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47046"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}