Cheap Trick 1997 is another good album. The band’s back on track and making rock albums again after Woke Up With a Monster (WUWaM). I just wanted to complain about how that album gets such poor reception while this one is often considered to be the true beginning comeback record. Listening to them back-to-back, they sound very similar. Same kind of songwriting, same sounding guitars.

Granted, Woke Up With a Monster was a bit of a “darker-toned” album (even though this has its fair share of dark songs as well that wouldn’t have sounded at all out of place on WUWaM) thanks to the lyrics and Ted Templeman‘s ’90s hard rock/grunge production that might have turned some people off, but when you get right down to it I think the sonic differences between the albums are marginal.

In fact, I’d go as far to say Woke Up With a Monster has much better hooks in general than Cheap Trick’s 1997 self-titled album. Ted Templeman is no stranger to producing pop/rock albums, and his production accentuated the band’s music—for the time. So why the hate for WUWaM? Is it mostly because it has a stupid cover? I wouldn’t be that surprised.

Okay, but enough about that. Cheap Trick 1997 sounds like the previous album, for better and worse, and is another solid entry in their discography. Check it out if you’re a fan. If you’re not, either try one of their first four albums or forget it; this is a fun pop rock album but it isn’t breaking any new ground in pop/rock songwriting quality.