High and dry
Illinois’ powerpop perennials clean up with their 21st studio set.
By Mark Blake.
Cheap Trick
★★★★★
All Washed Up
MBG. CD/DL/LP
IN JUNE 2007, the Illinois Senate passed a resolution naming April 1 ‘Official Cheap Trick Day’. It was also April Fool’s Day, which made sense, as there’s always been something daft, yet quietly subversive, about Cheap Trick.
Their image – two pop-star pin-ups and their geeky mates – embodied this. And they’ve kept the joke going, even though guitarist, songwriter and über-geek Rick Nielsen’s son Daxx has long since replaced original drummer, Bun E Carlos; he of the droopy ’tache and rumpled bank clerk demeanour.