Cheap Trick, ‘All Washed Up’: Review

One thing you can say about Cheap Trick: After five decades of making music, the Rockford, Illinois, quartet has been pretty consistent. There have been a few slight detours along the way, such as in 1988, when the band reluctantly included outside songwriters, resulting in their only No. 1, the super-polished power ballad “The Flame.”

From their start as a rough-and-tumble power pop band and the unexpected Top 5 peak of the live Cheap Trick at Budokan to several label swaps and more than 20 albums in their catalog, the group long ago earned its status as an American institution.

None of that is about to change on All Washed Up, their 21st album (including a 2017 holiday LP), whose title nods to their 1980 album All Shook Up while also poking fun at the plight of ’70s artists like Cheap Trick in a modern streaming world. But they sound particularly resilient at times, navigating familiar pop hooks and glowing harmonies in the lead single “Twelve Gates.”

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Cheap Trick has lost little of their oddball nature or knack for a well-placed riff in the intervening years. They even celebrate that legacy in “The Riff That Won’t Quit,” another All Washed Up highlight. If that momentum doesn’t carry through the album’s 40 minutes, that’s nothing new for the band; when the gems arrive, they hit with a force. Only during the record’s back half do a few of the tracks begin to sag.

The opening title tune and “All Wrong Long Gone” could have come from a Cheap Trick album from 45 years ago. The band remains firmly enthusiastic — guitarist Rick Nielsen’s son Daxx replaced original drummer Bun E. Carlos on 2016’s Bang, Zoom, Crazy … Hello — and singer Robin Zander sounds as vibrant as he did on the group’s 1977 debut. More than 50 years since their formation, Cheap Trick has weathered the changes, both in the industry and otherwise, with ease. All washed up? Don’t count them out yet.