Cheap Trick
(Cheap Trick)
Speaking to BLURT last winter, guitarist Rick Nielsen joked that his band's forthcoming album, then nearing completion, might be called The One After This Next One. As it turns out, he wasn't that far off, since the band - Nielsen, vocalist Robin Zander, drummer Bun E. Carlos, bassist Tom Petersson - settled on The Latest, and while some may view that title as tossed-off and generic, it actually fits the cheeky tone of the record, which is filled with self-referential flourishes and in-jokes befitting a group dubbing itself Cheap Trick.
Right at the start, following a brief, piano/vocal lullaby-like overture, "Sleep Forever," Nielsen & Co. put listeners on notice: a cover of Slade's glammy "When The Lights Are Out" begins not only with the same Gary Glitteresque drum pattern that opened their self-titled '77 debut LP, it none-too-subtly nicks (and gives a twist to) the "Elo Kiddies" guitar riff, then deploys it once again midsong just to make sure the listener's "get it." That the tune closes amid ecstatic, looped-in audience cheers reminiscent of the band's At Budokan just makes the nudge-nudge/wink-wink element all the more delightful. You want flashbacks? "When The Lights Are Out" actually hearkens back to 1976, demoed by the band but never released, hence its sounding like vintage Trick (and you just know that "Elo Kiddies" itself had to be a tribute to Slade), although it is testimony to the group's talent that the anthemic slab of power pop sounds utterly fresh in 2009, too.
There's more in this vein. "Sick Man of Europe," which takes its title from the moniker the group adopted in the early ‘70s prior to becoming Cheap Trick, is a two-minute slice of aggro-rock straight out of "Hot Love" and "He's A Whore" (both from Cheap Trick) territory. Though the group excelled in Brit Invasion-derived pop tunefulness from the get-go, Cheap Trick's heavy side was never too far away, Nielsen often wearing his Roy Wood/Move influences (re: "Brontosaurus") on his sleeve. Hold that thought: a few songs later they catapult headlong into "California Girl" which, though revved up, can't disguise the fiftiesish, rockabilly-flavored undercurrent, right down to Zander's Jerry Lee Lewis-type whoops and vocal flourishes. And yes, it's an answer song to the Move classic "California Man," and as anybody reading this probably already knows, Cheap Trick famously covered that neo-rockabilly outing on 1978's Heaven Tonight.
Clearly, Nielsen, Zander, Carlos and Petersson are having some fun tonight with this album.
Those are the most obvious hat-tips here, although studious Trick fans will undoubtedly spot more with repeated spins. There's plenty of the group's swirly, Beatlesque psychedelia on display, for example, notably the soaring, neo-orchestral "Times of Our Lives" (listen to how Nielsen double-tracks his guitar parts midsong before spiraling off onto a George Harrison-styled solo). And there's enough of the patented Trick hard rock present (the aforementioned "SMoE" and "California Girl"; the irresistibly thrumming "Alive" and the punkish "Everyday You Make Me Crazy" - the latter clocking in at an efficient 1:17) to offset a handful of clunkers (arena-destined "Closer, The Ballad of Burt and Linda"; piano ballad "Miracle"; the plodding "These Days" which appears to be positioned as a successor to their saccharine mega-hit from the late ‘80s, "The Flame").
It's not a perfect album. But it's a pretty good one, boasting a widescreen production and compelling arrangements that showcase both Zander's ever-agile pipes and Nielsen's consistently inventive fretwork. Over three decades into the game, Cheap Trick's resilience as songwriters and performers is damn inspiring, too, and the joy they get in making music together is both palpable and infectious. As Nielsen put it in our interview last year, regarding the band's longevity, "The fact that we could still be semi-convincing was a tribute to how we actually played and what we wrote. And I think that's way cool. I mean, it's like, you can dig our records, but at the same time, the core thing that we had, what it was, was we've made every mistake known to a band. We've had success, and we also had failure. But at the same time, we kept going. We didn't give up."
Younger bands would do well to take note.
Standout Tracks: "When The Lights Are Out," "Everyday You Make Me Crazy," "California Girl" FRED MILLS
