Cheap Thrills

I am not a fan of this. The exaltation of Janis Joplin has always felt like it was borne of "let's not speak ill of the dead" vibes. But the band is not really doing anything interesting, and I just don't find Janis to be a particularly interesting vocalist.

Confused that I didn't like this more than I did, since Janis's voice is perfect to me. I gave her album Pearl a five, but there were a lot of moments I felt lost here. One of the many albums I wonder if might turn into a five with more listening, though I also wonder if perhaps I was too enthusiastic about Pearl.

Es ist ein raues, ungeschöntes Dokument der späten Hippie‑Ära: viel Energie, viel Chaos, viel Janis Joplin. Die Platte lebt von ihrer unmittelbaren Live‑Attitüde, auch wenn sie größtenteils im Studio entstand. Joplin trägt das Album praktisch allein – ihre Stimme brennt, kratzt, fleht, besonders in „Piece of My Heart“ und „Ball and Chain“.

Janis okayyy! Like many people, I didn't know she fronted a band before this but I'm glad I've been given the opportunity to hear it. Super fun acid rock and great guitar through-lines support this absolute time of an album. However, I also have to dock a point; I would've loved the cover art if it didn't have a bunch of racist caricatures plastered all over it. Yuck :/

La voz de Janis Joplin es única. No me parece lo mejor que escuché pero sí es bastante disfrutable, los 55 minutos parecen 30. Muy buena banda pero no me sorprende honestamente.

The only crumb of enjoyment was from a cover.

There are no hidden gems on this one … you know the hits and the rest is fairly standard blues. We know Janis can sing, though this is not her most soulful, and the band is not breaking any ground here either. Overall, pretty predictable.

I mean, it's great to see how far Janis Joplin have gone, but I'm not a big fan. Sounded nice though.

Well I mean Piece of My Heart is such a classic. One of my all time favourite songs. But the rest of the album is meh to me

Much better than I expected

Such a great Janis album, definitely one of her best. She brings such an energy that makes this a very interesting and dynamic listen.

9/10 [KEEP]

Feels like this might have been pretty cool as a live performance, if there IRL, but just didn;t grab that much. Summertime was fairly unenjoyable.

Of course Joplin is phenomenal, but you shouldn’t sleep on the rest of the band, as they are great too.

It's interesting because most of the songs on this album are over 4 minutes, many pushing towards 5 minutes and even one that's 9 minutes. That's pretty exception given it was released in 1968. To modern ears, it's just rock and roll but I can see why this would be included on the list. The artwork is also kinda cool but the back story of the graphic artist only agreeing to do it if he got to pinch Janis's tit is kinda wild.

Liked it more than I thought, but greatest?

Always nice to hear Janis Jopping, but I think a lot of this album is missing the intensity I like from her. There's some obvious highlights (Turtle Blues is very good and I hadn't heard it before) but yeah not sure about her with the band

Didn’t resonate with me

Was there ever a luckier bunch of guys than Big Brother and The Holding Company? A fair to middling blues rock band - just another band in on the West Coast playing Psychedelia and they pick an unknown woman who turns out to be one of the great rock vocalists of all time.

They play Monterey, cause a sensation, record an album that's a benchmark for blues rock even today and then they're gone, leaving behind this.

Of course, it's the Janis Joplin show. Her voice is a raw miracle. The closest thing to it is probably Robert Plant, but Joplin makes Plant sound as smooth as Engelbert Humperdink, so smokey and emotional is her voice.

Whenever the album goes without her, in Combination of the Two or Oh, Sweet Mary you realise that they're not much without her.

The end of Ball and Chain - where she sings unaccompanied- makes you realise just how little they mattered. She's everything, with or without.

Of the five songs on the album where she sings lead, I Need a Man to Love, Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain are amazing. Her vocals are transcendent.

Summertime is transformed from Gershwin's beautiful number to a slow, tortured blues. It's good, but not the greatest performance on the album.

Turtle Blue is an acoustic blues in the style of Bessie Smith or Mephis Minnie. It's pretty good, even if it stands out completely from the rest of the album.

The bands backing to Janis's singing is, perhaps, more enthusiastic than tight. At times it's downright sloppy as only 60s Psychedelia can be.

After this album Joplin left the band and burned brightly through a brief solo career. But what a performance she left.

her voice is pretty powerful

Glad to see Janis again, and I had no clue she’d been in a band. Didn’t like this as much as Pearl, but it’s on the higher side of 3.

I really liked the cover art until I noticed the racist caricature which is blatantly not how the artist draws other people. It was cool to have all the songs represented on the cover like this; shame they made that decision which taints it a bit.