Sex, America, Cheap Trick is a rather half-assed, unfocused box set. Primarily has rare and unreleased tracks/demos, but also seems to be trying to make a case for Cheap Trick by including some (but certainly not all) of their biggest hit songs. However, this is pointless because due to the haphazard track selection and random track listing, it makes for an unbalanced listen through and is far from a good introduction to Cheap Trick.

The rarities are the main draw here. There’s some single edits of well-known songs that die-hard hands will want to have out of principle, and there’s many unreleased demos or live covers (including a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Waitin’ for the Man” / “Heroin”). However, most of the demos just aren’t that interesting or great to listen to. If anything, this is supported by the fact most of these demos hail from their The Doctor era (their worst album and creative nadir).

This box set would have served better as simply a rarities set, as it is now it is neither a definitive Cheap Trick introduction nor a perfect rarities collection as many well-known demos are still absent. Worth getting for the rarities, but only because there is no better official release as of yet.