Cheap Trick - In Color [Remastered] (CD 1998)

Cheap Trick were always an enigma. Too heavy for the pop brigade, and too pop for the metal brigade. In truth Cheap Trick were, and still are, quite simply a great melodic ROCK band. Great tunes with great hooks and if you actually listen there are some really heavy guitars going on. You can hear how they influenced bands such as Motley Crue, especially on Motley’s first lp Too Fast For Love, at least.

Anyway, this re-mastered CD is a Trick classic, full of really strong songs. It’s rare these days to get an album without any ‘fillers’, but not back when this was released. Every song is well crafted and a classic in it’s own right. From the very dark but powerful ‘Downed’ (my fave!) to the big mean riff of ‘Big Eyes’, the up-tempo party anthem ‘Clock Strikes Ten’, the gritty ‘Southern Girls’, the frantic opener of ‘Hello There’ the poppy ‘I Want You To Want Me’ (much better live though), the quirky ‘You’re All Talk’ to the powerful yet melodic ‘Oh Caroline’, ‘Come On, Come On’ and ‘So Good To See You’. To find all these songs on one album is a dream come true!

If you are new to Cheap Trick then this CD would be an excellent start. Follow it with ‘Dream Police’, ‘All Shook Up’, ‘Heaven Tonight’ and the true classic ‘At Budokan’ and your introduction to one of rocks finest, and most overlooked, bands will be complete!