Cheap Trick - In Color (The Unreleased Steve Albini Sessions)

I will let other sources tell this story (below). I'd heard of this recording. Thought it the fluff of myth that, if in existence, twas buried in a concrete bunker behind coated in titanium bars and kevlar wallpaper deep below Electrical Audio. Not so.


One personal asset of this recording, aside from the fact that it is blazing, heavy, thrusting new look at this solid record, is the fact that In Color was the first compact disc I ever purchased -- 1988, Columbia MO, University of Missouri-Columbia bookstore. Still have it. Still love it. Albini's job only made it much better (which is rarely said for a refreshed rendition of any recording).


Here's the contemporary history of the Albini recording of In Color straight from the horse's ass, wiki and bravewords.com and all over the damn www.


Wikipedia: On the radio show "Rockline" in 2003, someone called in and asked the band for the history behind the rumored Steve Albini version of the "In Color" disc, and Bun E. Carlos gave the explanation. The "In Color" album was produced by Tom Werman, but the band always felt that Werman screwed up the album. "He made it safe for radio, but the album sounds like it was done in a cardboard box." So in the late 1990s they were in the studio hanging around with the producer Steve Albini, and had nothing to do for a few days, so they said "Yeah, that would be fun to redo that." So they started re-recording the songs. They Did not finish the album, not all the harmonies or instruments are on it yet, but it can be found on the internet. It includes two versions each of "I Want You to Want Me" and "Oh Caroline."


From Bravewords.com and Rick Nielsen: As for the re-recorded Albini In Color album, "we haven't made any plans for it, but we didn't record it for a joke," he quips. "We didn't go at it trying to come up with crazy new arrangements, but sonically we never liked In Color. The songs were good, but sonically it's wimpy and we're not wimpy. We left before it got mixed and were told 'We'll fix it in the mix' by our record company (back then) and our ex-manager. Well, they went the other way," Nielsen says finishing his thought.


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