From the first riff, which hasn’t come to make small talk, Cheap Trick are plainly here to do what they do best. Punkily raucous but never losing control, these septuagenarians are still tapped into the motherlode of rock, 48 years since their debut. They’re still bright beasts who understand its essence: they know it, own it, like Parliament knew funk, like ABBA knew pop, like Hank knew country.
Decades on from the moment in Surrender when they were startled to discover their mom and dad getting high to Kiss records, they’re delivering their turbocharged power pop so purely that multiple generations will be able to roll on the couch to the ageless thrill of someone getting classic rock right. All Washed Up? They’re a clean machine.
