TS -- Cheap Trick vs. In Color vs. Heaven Tonight?

In Color is the best album with the debut trailing not far behind. Heaven Tonight was a major bummer when I first heard it (last year) & I haven't played it since. I like the Posies' cover of "Surrender" much more than the original.

Those of you who picked In Color are people, I suspect, who don't really like Cheap Trick. Nothing wrong with that. Cheap Trick's a rock band, a few twee-pop moments notwithstanding. I'm glad at least J0hn is forthright about the fact that he's so incredibly wrong.

Note: I will be the official Geir of this thread. And I saw Cheap Trick live one week ago today, and they ROKKED so U R ALL GAY etc.

What I said was in direct response to TOM'S POST. GO READ TOM'S POST.

Now, reading my original post in context (on more time for the slow ones): AM I WRONG? How much Cheap Trick do YOU listen to? Myself, I'm a fucking fanboy, okay, and I've admitted as much. I even bought their new album, for chrissakes. Maybe what I have said is
"autuerist bullshit," (I prefer to think of it as fanboy bullshit), but what you've responded with is psuedointellectual bullshit. So who's being more honest? Should I start calling you blountbot? "pop good!" "corny indie fuxx!" "rockist horseshit!" Jesus. This is the second time that you've isolated a particular (unimportant) sentence in one of my posts, interpreted it to a logical extreme, and acted like you've accomplished something brilliant. Guess what?

-- J (McChum...), September 18th, 2003 5:48 PM. (Jay) (link)

saying 'only poseurs pick in color' or 'cheap trick is a rock band so saying in color is their best album is wrong cuz it's not enough of a rock album' is autuerist bullshit (cf. bruce mccullouch's "doors fan")

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...), September 18th, 2003 5:52 PM. (James Blount) (link)

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so you are saying 'all writing about music should be a consumer guide'?!!!

What I am saying is that writing about music should probably be at least in part about music. I have ceased caring about critical in-fights that focus more on critics than music. In fact, I suggest that ILM be renamed to "I Love Hating on Other People Who Write About Music," and then I can just stop fucking reading it.

-- J (McChum...), August 23rd, 2003 12:42 PM. (Jay) (link)

zing!

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...), August 23rd, 2003 12:46 PM. (James Blount) (link)

J, would you like it better if the opening paragraph had something like this - "Built on acoustic guitar and drums with blood ties to George Michael's "Faith," "Like I Love You" is a tensile come-on sung in Michael Jackson's old falsetto. . . . "Like I Love You" doesn't recall a Michael Jackson song so much as the feeling of dancing to a Michael Jackson song in front of the mirror." - in it?

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...), August 23rd, 2003 12:49 PM. (James Blount) (link)

I mean, show me a piece of criticism this year that does a better job of telling you 'what it sounds like'.

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...), August 23rd, 2003 12:50 PM. (James Blount) (link)

And I think fanboyism has plenty of bullshit in it but J is RIGHT here - Cheap Trick stick out like a sore thumb in my listening, as a power-pop/rock combo; most of that stuff I really don't like at all so they're kind of a curio for me - it makes sense that I go for the songs that are closest to my conception of what good pop is.

All that said I still suspect people who don't like the studio IWYTWM are scared of prettiness.

Now that I only have the first four studio albums, the Budokan live album, and this year's lukewarm effort, my favorite is still In Color.

Read into that what you will, J.

And yes, I will totally concede that my opinion on Cheap Trick is tainted and of little use to the uninitiated. Generally, I try to keep my fanboy opinions to myself, but sometimes they uncontrollably burst out. Note: other artists who J cannot be trusted to talk logically about include Captain Beefheart, Prince, the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Nick Drake and Stevie Wonder.

Heaven Tonight = all time keeper, Cheap Trick = not far behind. BOTH versions of IWYTWM = sorta eh, actually.

The best version of IWYTWM is on the "Sex, America, Cheap Trick" boxset, actually. :)< /fanboy>

The song is just sorta lame. I'm surprised it was a hit.

I read somewhere that Beck is to Peter Frampton as Ween is to Cheap Trick. Sounded right to me.

Cheap Trick were the ULTIMATE (in the most ultimate sense of the word) punk pop band from the era. They had no right to be as sensitive as they were (the suicide theme is just devastating over a period of albums). Their copping of their heroes was utterly brilliant because it fucking meant something.

"Taxman Mr. Thief" obviously, but take a look further. The opening couplet of "He's A Whore" with a Byrds rip of Hillman's "Have You Seen Her Face?" twisting the original lyric into this tear on an ugly girl -- before, of course, it turns into a song about guys who love money more than girls, success, blow...anything.

Genius in power pop is all about being real without being fucking limp. It's about being catchy and tough, but also simple and touching. Rick Nielsen had "it" in a way that very few others have had. And based on the records after the First Three, he was willing to "fuck with the formula."

God bless the Freak....

"The production on In Color is a travesty."

this sentence is a travesty. i wish every rock record sounded as godly. never heard a cd version, so can't speak about that. or the albini thing. don't want that either.

HOW MANY TIMES CAN I POSSIBLY LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM AND *STILL* BE SURPRISED BY HOW FUCKING GREAT IT IS? i mean, how can something still shock me after all this time with its awesomeness? you would think the shock value would have worn off over the years.

and don't get me wrong, the debut is nearly as perfect. they are both so amazing.

i listened to the debut and in color and aerosmith rocks tonight and there is a god and he/she loves us all SO FUCKING MUCH!