On August 28, 1999, power pop masters Cheap Trick played a special show for fans at Davis Park in their hometown of Rockford, IL, to salute their 25th anniversary as a band...
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Special One 7/11/2003, Yahoo! Music, Bill Holdship
Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen has often complained that the band's last two studio albums--Woke Up With A Monster and Cheap Trick--weren't even close to par. The band...
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This is an "authorized" greatest hits collection in the sense that the band picked the selections themselves. It's preferable to the 1991 Greatest Hits comp for its slightly...
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Though Cheap Trick's second album, In Color, draws from the same stockpile of Midwestern barroom favorites as their debut album, it was produced by Tom Werman, who had the...
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Its much later release date deems it less significant in Cheap Trick lore than Budokan I. But imagine the joy Trick devotees experienced when they discovered that in a...
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Budokan II is exactly what it says it is -- the sequel to Cheap Trick's career-making At Budokan. Picking up where its predecessor left off (the tracks even begin at number...
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A debut that knocks your eyes out, blows your mind and stops your heart. (This is a good thing, by the way.) Cheap Trick announced their arrival with no care for subtlety,...
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Cheap Trick's eponymous debut is an explosive fusion of Beatlesque melodic hooks, Who-styled power, and a twisted sense of humor partially borrowed from the Move. But that...
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Signs of slippage here, but the vicious-delicious "Gonna Raise Hell," "Way Of The World" and "Need Your Love," not to mention the thrilling dementia epic "Dream Police,"...
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At Budokan unexpectedly made Cheap Trick stars, largely because "I Want You to Want Me" had a tougher sound than its original studio incarnation. Perversely -- and most...
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This EP consists of four cuts that hadn't found their way onto Cheap Trick's releases as of yet. Of note is their version of the Beatles' "Day Tripper." A nostalgic bit of...
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Lap Of Luxury 4/12/1988, Yahoo! Music, Lyndsey Parker
One of their worst, yet most successful, releases. (Never underestimate the lowest-common-denominator record-buying public's appetite for bland adult-contemporary fodder.)...
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Cheap Trick's comeback album is by no means a return to the creativity and vitality of their glory days. But even though Lap of Luxury is largely formulaic, the band's...
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No rock record collection should exist without Cheap Trick's first three albums. But if you really want a budget (actually not that cheap) sampler, I Want You to Want Me...
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So much rock, so little time: "Southern Girls," "Hello There," "Oh Caroline," "So Good To See You," etc. Heaven Tonight gets some stiff competition (pun intended) in the...
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Though Cheap Trick's second album, In Color, draws from the same stockpile of Midwestern barroom favorites as their debut album, it was produced by Tom Werman, who had the...
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Maybe it seems like a cop-out to put this in first place, but Budokan is as much a cultural artifact as it is an incendiary live recording. Anyone born between 1960-80...
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While their records were entertaining and full of skillful pop, it wasn't until At Budokan that Cheap Trick's vision truly gelled. Many of these songs, like "I Want You to...
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Unofficially known as "The New Wave Album." That's not as bad a thing as it sounds, but this album is definitely iffy in spots. "I Can't Take It" is an awesomely strident...
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Perhaps sensing something was going wrong, Cheap Trick hired superstar producer Todd Rundgren for Next Position Please. Rundgren helped the band return to the appealing...
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A sadly underrated and misunderstood album. The pure-bliss Beatle-ballad "If You Want My Love," sleazy, ballsy "She's Tight" and pop confections "Time Is Runnin'" and "Oo La...
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Tom Petersson left the group after the muddled All Shook Up, which was another sign that Cheap Trick was entering a confused period. One on One, the first record the group...
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Sounding more assured with Standing On the Edge, Cheap Trick shows once again that they always had a way with a great pop tune. "Tonight It's You" is pure pop and was a...
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The career choices of Rockford, IL's most famous quartet are always perversely peculiar: After a strong return to straight power pop for Standing on the Edge, Cheap Trick...
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Despite the fact that much of Cheap Trick's best material didn't come near the charts -- many of their greatest songs, including "He's a Whore," "Oh, Candy," "Downed,"...
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Not the worst of the latter-day, downward-spiral releases, (it sure does rock more than the sappy, ballad-heavy Lap Of Luxury) but the songwriting just isn't up to...
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With the release of Woke Up With a Monster, Cheap Trick's first new music in four years, the band was in for a rude awakening of its own. The disc died on the vine, reaching...
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Without question the best song on Cheap Trick's disastrous Woke Up With a Monster, "You're All I Wanna Do" is also one of the best songs of the quartet's quarter-century...
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Sony repackaged and re-released Cheap Trick's three best albums -- Cheap Trick, In Color, and Heaven Tonight -- as a slip-cased box set. It's not a bad way to acquire the...
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One from the rash of rash Cheap Trick summarizations that fell from the sky in the '90s, when the pop pros were prematurely put out to pasture. This collection is as...
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With the legendary George Martin sitting in the producer's chair for this one, you'd think that Cheap Trick would have had it made. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, for...
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Titled Cheap Trick like the group's debut album, presumably because the record represents a new beginning, Cheap Trick is indeed their most powerful, direct and melodic...
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Cheap Trick celebrated their 25th anniversary in the best way possible. In a handful of major cities, the band did a brief residency, performing one of their classic first...
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Cheap Trick's influence was hard to miss in the 1980s, but unfortunately, Cheap Trick itself was hurting (both artistically and commercially) by the middle of the decade....
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Spanning four discs and 64 songs, Sex, America Cheap Trick contains nearly all of the group's hit singles and an amazing amount of rarities -- a grand total of 30 outtakes,...
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Like many budget-priced collections, Sony Music Special Products' Don't Be Cruel takes a scattershot approach to compilation, randomly throwing a selection of hits, cult...
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Heaven Tonight, like In Color, was produced by Tom Werman, but the difference between the two records is substantial. Where In Color often sounded emasculated, Heaven...
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Despite the fact that much of Cheap Trick's best material didn't come near the charts -- many of their greatest songs, including "He's a Whore," "Oh, Candy," "Downed,"...
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Since both fans and critics agree on what Cheap Trick's core canon is, from the first three albums to the highlights that follow, it seems like it would be a fairly easy job...
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Cheap Trick's recorded work has been so inconsistent for so long, bouncing back and forth between belabored attempts to reach radio and self-conscious returns to their...
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