Cheap Thrills
| Janis Joplin
Cheap Thrills
Cheap Thrills is a studio album by American rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was their last album with Janis Joplin as lead singer. For Cheap Thrills, the band and producer John Simon incorporated recordings of crowd noise to give the impression of a live album, for which it was subsequently mistaken by listeners. Only the final song, a cover of "Ball and Chain", had been recorded live (at The Fillmore in San Francisco).-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Clash Music
August 3, 2012. A record of near-perfect intensity.
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Rolling Stone
December 3, 2018. Big Brother and the Holding Co.’s ‘Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills’ offers a vibrant image of Janis Joplin in her prime.
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Rolling Stone
September 18, 2018. Janis Joplin’s final album with band’s 50th anniversary set collects rare performances, outtakes.
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Rolling Stone
September 15, 1972. The title, Cheap Thrills, . . . is an appropriate one, for that is to a great extent what this record has to offer. What this record is not is 1) a well-produced, good rock and roll recording; 2) Janis Joplin at her highest and most intense moments; and 3) better than the Mainstream record issued last year.
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AllMusic
Cheap Thrills, the major-label debut of Janis Joplin, was one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful, albums of 1968.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
November 27, 2018. And even though the rest of the band could be sloppy in its approach at times, Cheap Thrills turned into one of the era's greatest albums and a landmark showcase for the thrilling Joplin.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
August 12, 2015. Cheap Thrills – which wasn't quite the live album it claimed to be, since studio recordings and overdubs make up a bulk of the tracks – was a huge hit, staying at No. 1 for eight weeks.
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American Songwriter
November 26, 2018. It’s 50th anniversary time for the album previously known as Cheap Thrills. But this version, like the singer it features, is different than most.
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The Wall Street Journal
November 20, 2018. . . . in February 1968, Ms. Joplin and the band signed with Columbia and went to work on their first album for the label. The result was “Cheap Thrills,” one of hard rock’s most important albums and arguably Ms. Joplin’s most gripping and influential vocal recording.
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Pop Matters
January 8, 2019. When Janis Joplin opens her mouth, a whole new universe of depth emerges. There is magic in her voice.
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Paste Magazine
November 26, 2018. It’s hard to imagine another sophomore album that not only made a powerful initial impression but at the same time, marked such a stunning farewell.
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Legacy Recordings
September 18, 2018. Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills revisits those 1968 sessions and shines a new light on the genius of Janis Joplin and the incredible chemistry she shared with her bandmates in Big Brother & The Holding Company.
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altrockchick
July 21, 2014. What I hear is an undisciplined vocalist who had no concept of empty space, who had to fill every spare minute of air time with her crude vocalizations. What I hear is a scenery-chewing drama queen desperately trying to draw attention to herself.
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Blog Critics
June 5, 2010. Cheap Thrills was a psychedelic, blues/rock masterpiece. The twin guitars of James Gurley and Sam Andrew set the tone and Janis Joplin did the rest.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
A major step forward, and the high point of the "San Francisco sound." (DBW) Over-rated by almost everyone, it seems. Janis' horde of Big Brother backing guitarists were derivative, clumsy, and over-loud, and while Janis was a better singer than any other woman in the 60s rock scene . . . . (JA)
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Keno.org
2000. Big Brother & the Holding Company's second album and a masterpiece thanks to Janis Joplin. Joplin's vocals are soaring all over this album.
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MoFi
Indeed, Cheap Thrills still exhilarates not only due to Joplin's almighty singing but because of boundary-shredding arrangements that reflect the period's anything-is-possible mindset.
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mxdwn.com
December 10, 2018. The songs are all strong, but the band was never able to commercially recover from her departure. She fit in well with the band’s sound and gave their music a harder edge with the grit in her delivery.
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George Starostin's Reviews
The quintessence of the Janis & Big Brother sound: loud, unprofessional, raw and steaming. Buy it if you're uncoventional.
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Daily KOS
June 2, 2017. A perfect example of 60s ‘acid rock’, it’s very rough and raw, psychedelic and messy from a music standpoint — certainly ‘Big Brother’ was not nearly in Janis’s league, talent-wise.
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Musikreviews.de
November 30, 2018. . . . the "outrageous" album title " Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills", Which saw the light of day under" Cheap Thrills "50 years ago and now celebrates its 50th anniversary in all its original beauty and an excellent sound remaster as well as a lot of new recordings from the 68er sessions.
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Shepherd Express
December 18, 2018. Many numbers featured here are less focused than the familiar versions released in ’68. Vocalist Janis Joplin is—of course—in full whiskey-and-nicotine throated attack.
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We Are Cult
November 30, 2018. . . . its August 1968 release a worldwide smash, placing Joplin on the map as one of the icons of the sixties/seventies. It proved her last with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and, sadly, her last indelible statement. But there’s a power to the performances . . . .
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Music Aficionado
Messy as it is, Cheap Thrills is maybe among the five or so most representative albums of the San Francisco Scene c. '67-68. . . . Still, the members of the band had one asset to protect, one ticket out. Without Joplin, they wouldn't have been signed to a major label . . . .
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Pop Dose
September 6, 2012. Cheap Thrills reached #1 on the Billboard album chart for the week of October 12, 1968, and spent eight weeks there in two separate runs at the top.
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The Second Disc
September 18, 2018. It was Big Brother’s second and final album with lead singer Janis Joplin, whose incendiary talents were simply too big for any one band. Cheap Thrills, produced by John Simon, remains a touchstone for pulse-pounding blues-rock.
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Analog Planet
March 7, 2013. The biggest surprise is the very rare mono mix of Cheap Thrills . . . . This is a much better album in mono! Janis Joplin's voice punches through far better in mono. This one is highly recommended, especially if you like the record and have only heard it in stereo.
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