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The Knack


"Round Trip" is the third studio album by power pop/new wave band the Knack, released by Capitol Records in 1981. The album received generally unfavorable critical reviews and peaked at No. 93 on the Billboard 200. It included the single "Pay the Devil (Ooo, Baby, Ooo)," which reached No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Boys Go Crazy" was also released as a single in Australia and intended as a follow-up in the U.S., but it did not chart. The band disbanded a few months after the album's release, with their label dropping them due to unmet expectations, remaining separated until a reunion in 1986. The album was produced by Jack Douglas and was criticized at the time of its release, although some later reviews were more favorable. Steve "Spaz" Schnee of Allmusic called it "brilliant" and claimed it surpassed the band's earlier albums. Darren Robbins from The Zeitgeisty Report labeled it a "masterpiece" and possibly the most underrated album of all time. David Fricke of Rolling Stone provided a generally positive review, noting the Knack's comeback after the hype surrounding their earlier work. In contrast, The New York Times described the album as "well-crafted" but suggested that it attempted to mask the superficiality of its songs with production techniques, implying the band was a "one-hit wonder." "Boys Go Crazy" later appeared in the 1992 EMI Music compilation My Sharona. Several tracks from Round Trip, including "Another Lousy Day in Paradise," "Africa," "Sweet Dreams," "Just Wait and See," and "Pay the Devil (Ooo, Baby, Ooo)," were included in The Retrospective: The Best of the Knack released by Capitol Records in 1992. Critic Skip Anderson rated "Boys Go Crazy" as the Knack's eighth-best song and suggested it should have been the lead single instead of "Pay the Devil." Record World described "Boys Go Crazy" as a "straight-ahead rocker" featuring Doug Fieger's emphatic vocals.