Title: So So Songs meets Wrong Producer
Review: Early 80's release from legendary power-popsters Cheap Trick doesn't show the band at it's best. The songs are a mixed bag...some ok stuff, some junk. But nothing here even comes close to the clever, razor-sharp Cheap Trick you'll find on earlier albums like 'Heaven Tonight' and 'Live At budokan'.Roy Thomas Baker's production work here is awful. The tight, raw vitality that was Cheap Trick's hallmark sound is replaced here by a sound that feels artificial and mechanical. But my major complaint with this record is the lack of dynamics. The mix is loud and cluttered with layers and layers of grinding, mechanical guitars and screaming vocals. And where's Bun E. Carlos??? It can't be him playing these stiff, mechanical, clanky-sounding drum tracks ! Baker's production work here stands among the worst I've ever heard. Couple that with the band's marginal songs and this one's a dud.
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