Cheap Trick - We're All Alright! [Japanese Ed. SHM-CD] (2017)

Year: June 16, 2017 (CD Jun 16, 2017)
Label: Big Machine Records (Japan), POCS-24012
Style: Hard Rock
Country: Rockford, Illinois, U.S.
Time: 53:11
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 405 Mb

It's difficult for any band or artist to sound enthused after decades of making music. Automatic pilot and rock 'n' roll root rot can easily set in.
There are some exceptions: Paul McCartney has had some late-career gems; same goes for David Bowie and the Monkees. You can add Cheap Trick to that list. They sound positively vibrant and genuinely excited on We're All Alright! 
Unlike many of their contemporaries, Cheap Trick have never broken up, stopped touring or quit making new music. They have also never stopped putting everything they have into what they do either. Coming hot on the heels of last year's Bang Zoom Crazy Hello, We're All Alright!  follows in the footsteps of its predecessor while adding a couple of new twists to the mix.
Guitarist Rick Nielsen welds together riffs borrowed from the Kinks and the Who for the album's first single, "Long Time Coming," while "Nowhere" takes on a Ramones-like charge in its speed attack. Other songs follow a similar path, with no track clocking in at more than four minutes. This pace gives the album a whiplash flow that recalls some of their earliest records.
A few of the songs actually date back several years. "Radio Lover" was put on the shelf in the '90s, and it's rescued from oblivion here as an amphetamine-fueled hard rocker. "Lolita" slaps keyboard sequencers on top of glam-rock boogie. And "She's Alright" features some Bob Dylan-styled phrasing from singer Robin Zander
Cheap Trick also dip into the past by covering Roy Wood again. As they've done in the past with "California Man," "Brontosaurus" and "Rock and Roll Tonight," they take the Move's 1968 song "Blackberry Way" and spin it in their direction.
The band pushes itself on We're All Alright!, turning in enthusiastic and engaging performances throughout. They still sound like a bunch of guys half their age. "Who knows what forever is about?" Zander asks on "The Rest of My Life." He doesn't pretend to know the answer.
Cheap Trick sound like they still have something to prove, and perhaps they do. After a couple of trying and triumphant years -- there was a legal hassle involving former drummer Bun E. Carlos, and they were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 -- they sound ready for their next chapter.
(ultimateclassicrock.com/cheap-trick-were-all-alright-review/)

01. You Got It Going On (03:11)
02. Long Time Coming (03:12)
03. Nowhere (02:45)
04. Radio Lover (02:46)
05. Lolita (03:16)
06. Brand New Name On An Old Tattoo (03:32)
07. Floating Down (03:49)
08. She's Alright (03:39)
09. Listen To Me (03:13)
10. The Rest Of My Life (04:18)
11. Blackberry Way (03:13)
12. Like A Fly (03:22)
13. If You Still Want My Love (04:23)
14. When I Wake Up Tomorrow (Live) (Bonus track) (03:38)
15. The In Crowd (Live) (Bonus track) (04:46)

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Cheap Trick - Dream Police [4 bonus tracks] (1979)

Year: September 21, 1979 (CD 2006)
Label: Epic Records (US), 82796 94485 2
Style: Hard Rock, Power Pop
Country: Rockford, Illinois, U.S.
Time: 64:52
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 449 Mb

The album overall dissociates itself quite a bit from the previous one, "Heaven Tonight", which is somewhat the projection of the 70s, to begin embracing an 80s perspective and taste, which would take definitive form some time later. The intention for change is recognizable from "Voices," still rooted in the almost ended century, to "Need Your Love," which perhaps intentionally is placed at the end just to indicate the result of their effort.
Overall, the tracks on the album have the same style, except for some pleasant highlights. Interesting, beyond the music, is also the vocal plan of the backing voices in "Dream Police." The album opens with the title track, which shouldn’t be labeled as the main highlight of this work, as you quickly realize with songs like "Way Of The World" and "I'll Be With You."
In "The House Is Rocking", there is a different trend compared to the first tracks, more refinement in the voice and the riff, and guitar solos appear throughout the track. Then comes "Gonna Raise Hell", which is just what I talked about earlier. The change in style and sound is very evident, and with this track and "The Writing On The Wall", the album takes on a more seriously rock direction.
(en.debaser.it/cheap-trick/dream-police/review)

01. Dream Police (03:54)
02. Way Of The World (03:38)
03. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems) (05:11)
04. Gonna Raise Hell (09:20)
05. I'll Be With You Tonight (03:51)
06. Voices (04:22)
07. Writing On The Wall (03:27)
08. I Know What I Want (04:30)
09. Need Your Love (07:40)
10. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems) (Live) (Bonus track) (06:16)
11. Way Of The World (Live) (Bonus track) (04:00)
12. Dream Police (No Strings version) (Bonus track) (03:53)
13. I Know What I Want (Live) (Bonus track) (04:44)

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Cheap Trick - In Color [5 bonus track] (1977)

Year: September 1, 1977 (CD 1998)
Label: Epic Records (US), EK 65573
Style: Hard Rock, Power Pop
Country: Rockford, Illinois, U.S.
Time: 46:19
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 311 Mb

Charts: US #73, AUS #93, JPN #30. US & CAN: Platinum.
“Any fears of a sophomore slumber party were put to bed with the brilliant In Color. Producer Tom Werman captures a softer and zanier Cheap Trick on songs like I Want You To Want Me and Come On, Come On that has as much in common with The Bay City Rollers as The Beatles.
“As with their first record, underneath the perfect three-minute pop songs run Rick Nielsen’s dark currents of sexual angst. Hello There asks the musical question ‘Would you like to do a number with me?’ and, knowing Nielsen’s sense of humor, I’d guess the number he has in mind is somewhere between 68 and 70. Clock Strikes Ten is a blatant booty call. On later albums, Nielsen would cross the lines of good taste, but he’s got his ducks lined up in a perfect row here; the first four tracks on this record are as strong an opening as you’ll find on any pop or rock record.
“In Color also has a surfer-boy swagger to it that seemed to emanate from Robin Zander’s persona: Southern Girls, Oh Caroline and ‘Come On, Come On’ have an indelible twang to them. [Yes, I actually wrote ‘indelible twang,’ as if there are twangs that come off with a good rubbing.] It’s worth mentioning to newbies that ‘I Want You To Want Me’ is the exception on In Color. When I first bought this album as a kid, I was disappointed to find that the whole thing didn’t sound like ‘Mr. Blue Sky.’ Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t fall head over heels for Downed, ‘Oh Caroline’ and ‘Southern Girls,’ but I was kind of a wiener as a kid. I’ve since gotten a handle on that. So, to sum things up, great power pop record, half of it classic Cheap Trick, and not nearly as lascivious as my little review would make it out to be.”
I didn’t say it was a good review, but I guess I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this morning. I would add that In Color, even more so than Cheap Trick, is the quintessential power pop record. Any band that could rock as hard as Aerosmith and lace their songs with melodies as sweet as anything from Electric Light Orchestra was destined for some measure of immortality. Of course, Cheap Trick eventually proved mortal (the muses being fickle things), but for their first three or four albums, there wasn’t a better power pop band on the planet.
(progrography.com/cheap-trick/review-cheap-trick-in-color-1977/)

01. Hello There (01:41)
02. Big Eyes (03:09)
03. Downed (04:10)
04. I Want You To Want Me (03:11)
05. You're All Talk (03:34)
06. Oh Caroline (02:59)
07. Clock Strikes Ten (03:02)
08. Southern Girls (03:43)
09. Come On, Come On (02:39)
10. So Good To See You (03:46)
11. Oh Boy (Instrumental version) (Bonus track) (03:10)
12. Southern Girls (Previously unreleased demo) (Bonus track) (03:03)
13. Come On, Come On (Previously unreleased demo) (Bonus track) (02:06)
14. You're All Talk (Previously unreleased live version) (Bonus track) (03:41)
15. Goodnight (Previously unreleased live version) (Bonus track) (02:18)

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