Cheap Trick (1977 album)
| Cheap Trick | ||||
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| Studio album by Cheap Trick | ||||
| Released | February 1977 | |||
| Recorded | Record Plant, New York City, 1976 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, power pop | |||
| Length | 40:00 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Jack Douglas | |||
| Cheap Trick chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
| Robert Christgau | B |
| Rolling Stone | (positive) |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | (10/10) |
Cheap Trick is the first studio album released in 1977 by the American rock band Cheap Trick. It was their debut album for Epic Records, produced by Jack Douglas. The album did not reach the Billboard 200 chart but did "bubble under" at number 207 for one week in April 1977.
Most of the songs have a more raw sound akin to hard rock bands of the period compared to the group's later more polished power pop style, and the song lyrics deal with more extreme subject matter than later albums. For instance, "The Ballad of T.V. Violence" is about serial killer Richard Speck, "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School" is about a pedophile, and "Oh Candy" is about a photographer friend of the band, Marshall Mintz (a.k.a. "m&m") who committed suicide.
This album, along with the following three albums, are considered by fans and critics to be Cheap Trick's best works. This one, however, is more known for capturing both their dark side and the fierceness of their early live performances more than any other studio release in their catalog.
The album was produced by Jack Douglas, who had achieved a similar sonic density with the blues-rock/hard rock band Aerosmith, and the album sounds quite different than subsequent Cheap Trick records. Jack Douglas later worked with the band on the Found All the Parts EP, on the album Standing On The Edge, as well as on a re-recorded version of "Surrender" in the late 1990s and on a few tracks on Rockford.
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