Cheap Trick – ‘Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello!’ [Review]
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Not many musicians can say they’ve been in the game for close to half a century – but Rick Nielsen is one of the rare few who have made it. Over the past several decades, Nielsen has driven the streamlined musical sports car named Cheap Trick through a bewildering string of twists and turns to arrive in 2016 with a new album, Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello!
Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello! happens to be Cheap Trick’s seventeenth studio album – and that is undoubtedly an immense achievement. These guys just keep on going, like human Duracell bunnies – and Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello! seethes and sparks with the kind of force and energy that many much younger bands could only envy.
Look around the rock landscape today, and you’ll find countless bands deeply indebted to Cheap Trick. Whenever you hear a pop-rock crossover, you hear the direct or indirect result of Cheap Trick’s influence. These guys laid the blueprint and set the standard for the thousands upon thousands of pop-rock-related acts that have followed them into the limelight.
For the most part, Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello! lives up to its creators’ lofty standards. Opening quartet Heart On the Line, No Direction, When I Wake Up Tomorrow and Do You Believe Me stand as tall and impressive examples of accessible, radio-friendly rock done right. Whether you’re looking for cool hooks, bluesy solos, some good-time party music, big riffs, crazy guitar freakouts, or a classic lovesick singalong, those tunes have you covered.
Fifth track Blood Red Lips; Sing My Blues Away; Roll Me; and The In Crowd prove less effective – especially after such a strong opening barrage – but Long Time No See You sees Cheap Trick on top form, fully reinvigorated, excitedly strutting their stuff on a track that surely should have been Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello!’s opener. From there, The Sun Never Sets proves upbeat and cool, and drug-referencing anthem All Strung Out closes the album on a song that feels like it would have fit better in the middle of the set rather than at the end.
Overall, Bang Zoom Crazy…Hello! shows that Cheap Trick still have what it takes to show the kids how it’s done. When they’re on form here, they completely nail it; but with several weak spots and an uncomfortable, jerky track listing, it’s definitely an album fit for cherry-picking. There are a few songs Cheap Trick fans will want to add to their playlist of favourites, but the rest are likely to be forgotten by all but the most die-hard obsessives.
TMMP RATING: 75%
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