Artist: Cheap Trick
Label: Cheap Trick Unlimited
Released: 2009
Length: 37:43
Rating: 4/5
This album landed in my hands by accident, as a freebie with the November issue of the music magazine Classic Rock. Anyone who’s a true rock fan and has even a bit of self-respect is surely subscribed to this excellent British mag. As always, the Brits pulled the old continent’s leg again. They crowned their need to manufacture fake hype about “superiority” by bundling the fresh Motorhead studio album “The World Is Yours” with this esteemed magazine for subscribers in Great Britain, while the rest of the (“inferior”) subscribers across Europe got a different treat: the new issue came with the latest album from legendary American rockers Cheap Trick, “The Latest”. All would be fine if the whole thing didn’t have one beauty flaw. “The Latest” already came out last June.
If we keep spinning this piece out from the cues offered by the disc bundled with the latest issue of Classic Rock, it’s not hard to figure out that whoever receives the version with “The Latest” will, sooner rather than later, be pretty grateful to the magazine’s editorial staff for the little gift. Cheap Trick’s distribution in Europe isn’t as strong as Motorhead’s. But that’s a minor remark, because what matters is that Cheap Trick have finally come back with “The Latest”! The excellent predecessor “Rockford” (2006) was already cheerfully announcing it, washing away the bitter itch of doubt after the band put out the wobbly “Special One” in 2003. And if we think of Motorhead, whose albums predictably come out every two years and look as alike as two peas in a pod, it’s clear this fine Cheap Trick gift is even more precious.
“The Latest” cements the band’s status as back on the tracks that do justice to the brightest and most unique, recognizable traits of the golden era of Cheap Trick’s rich career. “The Latest” is the sixteenth officially released Cheap Trick album overall, and it’ll be embraced with enthusiasm by all those fans who put sacred albums like “In Color”, “Heaven Tonight” or “Dream Police” first.
A band that devilishly cunningly poured a Beatles-esque feel for infectious melodies, breathed into them the arrogant charge of primal rock n’ roll power, and with their racket even a dab of punk mockery. You could say Cheap Trick are America’s answer to The Beatles’ pop hit-making, virtuously armored with predatory rock n’ roll cosmetics. “The Latest” is full of that recognizable charisma too. It sounds fresh, and it feels like Cheap Trick have found the fountain of youth again, the one they drink from to keep their unbridled power even after 36 years of defying the scene. Yes. Cheap Trick always kept a tasteful knack for dosing out their character with just the right amount of sarcasm, and “The Latest” is full of it too. The top spot in rascality this time surely goes to the blazing two-minute “intermezzo” Sick Man Of Europe, though California Girl owes it very little.
Barely 37 minutes of music, but it’s condensed, a concise, straight-to-the-point rock n’ roll adventure with a heavy gravitational pull that you’ll struggle to resist. Opener Sleep Forever is a sort of mix of Queen-style grandeur and Nazareth-style brokenness. A hugely melancholic intro, but it gets cut across by the rocking Miss Tomorrow, dressed in a cunning pop veil of arrangements like Electric Light Orchestra skillfully wrote once upon a time, in the late seventies, say. So the essence is still very much present.
Vocal chameleon Robin Zander can be sweet and bitter at once (Sleep Forever, Miracle), goofily naughty and unbridled, debauched and fired up (Sick Man Of Europe, Everyday You Make Me Crazy, California Girl), with a mild Lennon-esque accent still intact (listen to the swaying verse of Everybody Knows, or the whole of Alive). In short, the man keeps all the grandeur of his recognizable vocal aura, with which he skillfully breathes soul into the songs. Rick Nielsen keeps dynamite in his fingers and makes full use of his innate feel for crafting juicy, elemental, destructively biting guitar phrases. The vocal harmonies and added keyboard arrangements share responsibility with Zander’s vocals for a bigger or smaller share of pop touches throughout the album.
Interestingly, this time Cheap Trick don’t fire off all their available rock n’ roll ammo at the end of the album, but run the closing stretch in a mid-tempo, I’d rather say “ballad”-swaying manner. That tips the mood toward melancholy, and the goofy side of Cheap Trick’s sarcasm lies low here. The songs Time Of Our Lives and Closer, The Ballad Of Burt And Linda stick to the tried-and-true recipe of drawing from the legacy of the masters of melodic perfection, the Beatles and/or Electric Light Orchestra. The album has a truly lively production of primal rock n’ roll perception, with a fat, tightly wound bass drum and a deep-booming “snare”. In places Cheap Trick again skillfully put their full trust in building organic sound sets (Miss Tomorrow, Alive, Times Of Our Lives, Everybody Knows, Miracle). If Slade were still in their prime, they’d surely envy a superior rock n’ roll firestarter like California Girl.
“The Latest” is a compact album! The songs on it are concise and rock-solid, every last one carrying the recognizably unique character of Cheap Trick’s rock-essence sermon. Hence it confirms the happy realization first brought to life by the “comeback” album “Rockford”. Seasoned old foxes simply know best. The Latest won’t put the band back on the Billboard charts. That’s utopian. But it is, forgivably, one devilishly good new Cheap Trick album that can stand proudly alongside the band’s best past studio work.
Line-up
Robin Zander – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Rick Nielsen – guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Tom Petersson – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar
Bun E. Carlos – drums, backing vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Julian Raymond – arrangements, additional instruments
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – keyboards
Bon Harris – programming
George Doering – acoustic guitar
Luis Conte – programming
Bennett Salvay – orchestration
Jason Falkner – additional musician
Production
Cheap Trick, Julian Raymond & Howard Willing
Tracklist
1. Sleep Forever
2. Miss Tomorrow
3. Sick Man of Europe
4. These Days
5. Miracle
6. Everyday You Make Me Crazy
7. California Girl
8. Everybody Knows
9. Alive
10. Times of Our Lives
11. Closer, The Ballad of Burt and Linda
