Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick is the debut studio album by the American rock band Cheap Trick, released in 1977. It was released under Epic Records and produced by Jack Douglas, a frequent collaborator of the band. The album did not reach the Billboard 200 chart but did "bubble under" at number 207 for one week in April 1977. Overview 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 TV Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)" is about serial killer Richard Speck, "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School" is about an ephebophile, and "Oh, Candy" is about a photographer friend of the band, Marshall Mintz, who committed suicide. Critical reception The album was generally well-received by critics with favorable comparisons to the Beatles and the Who, with critics likening Robin Zander's vocals to John Lennon's. Charles M. Young, writing for Rolling Stone, said the album had a "heavy emphasis on basics with a strain of demented violence" and that the lyrics "run the gamut of lust, confusion and misogyny, growing out of rejection and antiauthoritarian sentiments about school—all with an element of wit." Ira Robbins of Trouser Press noted the album's "wall-of-guitar sound" and said the band was "sarcastic, smart, nasty, powerful, tight, casual, and destined for something great." Juliana Hatfield, speaking to Melody Maker in 1993, praised Cheap Trick as "the quintessential rock record" and one that "entertains all the way through".