In Color

A damn fine album, from Cheap Trick, this is. Melodic, gritty, and just a rockin' good time. But, as with Cheap Trick, their sound remains too polished and pretty, in their studio work, and doesn't live up to the live material.

Cheap Trick's second album, In Color, is track for track, their best album. While their self-titled debut and their next album, Heaven Tonight, have several great songs, every song on In Color is a winner. "Hello There", "Clock Strikes Ten", "Come On, Come On", and "Big Eyes" are outstanding anthems and would play an integral part of their breakthrough release, Live at Budokan. "Southern Girls" and "I Want You to Want Me" are great power pop tunes, chock full of memorable melodies and choruses, as the latter would become a huge hit single in a live version on the aforementioned Budokan. The remaining tracks; the energetic "You're All Talk", the dramatic "Downed", the poppy "So Good to See You", and "Oh Caroline", are also top notch. The remastered version includes several unreleased tracks including raw demos of "Southern Girls" and "Come On Come On" and a live cut of "You're All Talk" that is even more exciting than the original. Simply put, In Color is Cheap Trick at their best and is one of the best power pop albums ever. Highly recommended.

I have the old 10-track CD version of In Color, Cheap Trick's 2nd album (I had the gatefold LP back in the day of course). In Color can be easily overlooked because it falls between the band's incredible debut and the chart-topping Heaven Tonight. And to be honest, yes it's not as good as either of those two but Cheap Trick on a bad day is still one of the best bands around. In Color is a fantastic record, HIGHLY recommended to any Trickster. It's fun to hear the "lame" version of I Want You To Want Me, and In Color contains two of my all time favorite songs, Downed and Come On Come On. Southern Girls is also great. The lyrics to Downed get to me every time, I love the opening verse:
I'm gonna live on a mountain
Way down under in Australia
Its either that or suicide
Its such a strange strain on you

this is truly vile filth. satan's music. music that means to lead you astray from the true Faith. we burnt this record at my church back in the days of vinyl. "I want you to want me?" what do you SUPPOSE that's all about???? and "Southern Girls?" more like "degenerate cajun swamp queens with their wicked bodies barely covered." that's what i'd say. evil evil evil music. bad bad bad. but it rocks and is very catchy, and "Downed" is a classic song, so i give it four and a half stars.

this is a great album that deserves more credit than it gets, some say it is too polished and poppy, i'm sure cheap trick would've liked to have made it harder, and you can compare these versions to the "live at budokan" versions,and hear how they probably wanted them to sound, but i still love it. i used to have this one vinyl, and cd, and the remastering sounds great. this one doesn't have as many good extra tracks as the first cheap trick album remaster, but this album is pure gold.