Cheap Trick - Rockford (2006)

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Cheap Trick - Rockford (2006)

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Cheap Trick - Rockford
APE+CUE+LOG+Covers or mp3 CBR 320 | 41:20 min | 315 or 98 MB
Genre: Rock / Power Pop

Power pop pioneers and one of the all-time greatest live bands, Cheap Trick seems rock's answer to Rodney Dangerfield. Cheap Trick may get no respect from the Rock Hall of Fame, corporate radio and most pop pundit fashionistas, but that hasn't stopped them from delivering another career highlight on their third studio effort since bolting the major label tilt-a-whirl a decade ago. Indeed, the album's bracing aggro-pop bent seems as rooted in stubborn defiance (of age, odds and indifference) as it does Trick's evergreen pantheon of influences. The only thing resembling a concession here is the Linda Perry co-written/co-produced single "Perfect Stranger", a burnished condensation of CT's still potent power-pop charms. The band-produced (with help from Steve Albini and vet Jack Douglas) balance is more to the point, with the hard-charging "Welcome to The World" and careening "Come On …" setting an energetic tone that's less willfully precious than the previous Special One, if no less adventurous. "If It Takes a Lifetime" serves up an infectious slab of harmony-rich pop metal that rivals Def Leppard's prime, while the baroque-bubblegum of "Oh Claire" and chiming perfection of "Dream the Night Away" showcase a wealth of hooks that nonetheless remain only half the band's equation. Guitarist Rick Neilsen's penchant for the obtuse yields the deliciously loopy James Brown-meets-ELO workout "One More" while "Decaf" wraps it all up with a blast of patently snotty Trick energy, tracks where man-of-a-thousand voices Robin Zander adds a couple more to his burgeoning resume.

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Cheap Trick - Rockford (2006)

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This relationship clearly served the group well, since '06's Rockford, named after Cheap Trick's Illinois hometown, sees the band proudly returning to its power-pop roots. Tracks such as the hard-rocking "Welcome to the World", the Beatlesque "O Claire", and the jubilant "This Time You Got It" are (no kidding) in the same league as the quartet's classic late-'70s work, with frontman Robin Zander in fine voice, guitarist Rick Nielsen churning out huge riffs, and the rhythm section of bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos sounding as tight as ever. Those who had written off Cheap Trick as rock has-beens are proven resoundingly wrong with this delightful and wonderfully assured record.

Cheap Trick's recorded work has been so inconsistent for so long, bouncing back and forth between belabored attempts to reach radio and self-conscious returns to their classic early work, it's kind of a shock to discover that 2006's Rockford is a good, solid Cheap Trick record. Scratch that – it's a very, very good Cheap Trick record, glistening with Beatlesque harmonies, sugary hooks and snarling guitars, and built on a set of songs that emphasize their strengths without seeming fussy or formulaic. They also don't seem tired or juvenile, either, nor do the band try to rock too hard or heavy, the way they did on the good but occasionally stilted Steve Albini-produced 1996 self-styled comeback, Cheap Trick. Albini is back for portions of Rockford, as is Jack Douglas, the producer behind their early masterworks, and 2000 rock's flavor of the month Linda Perry drops by for a single too – but far from being a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup, it's more that each producer/engineer/collaborator helps bring out a different aspect of Cheap Trick. Sure there are songs that serve up crunching hard rock along with a little bit of streamlined arena rock, but there are pop songs built upon the British Invasion, bittersweet ballads, even a little bit of disco-funk on "One More". When all these different sounds are put together, it does indeed add up to the most diverse album they've made in many a moon, but since there's such a strong emphasis on melody, vocal harmonies, and guitar hooks, all wrapped up in three-minute songs, it also winds up as Cheap Trick's first genuine power pop album since their heyday, and their best album since Dream Police. After all these years and all those uneven albums, it's a bit of a surprise to have the band deliver an album this good completely out of the blue but, as their catalog proves, Cheap Trick have never done things the easy way – and it's better to finally get a very, very good Cheap Trick record unexpectedly, some 27 years after the last good one, instead of not getting one at all.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, all media guide