Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen didn’t take long to show his snappy sense of humor during a recent interview.
Asked how the creativity level in the band now compares to where it was when the group recorded its classic first three albums, “Cheap Trick,” “In Color” and “Heaven Tonight,” Nielsen offered this response:
“I think the creative juices are flowing, so it feels like things are good,” he said. “I feel good about writing. I feel good about writing bad stuff.”
Cheap Trick is a headliner today at this weekend’s Darrington Rock Festival.
Actually, there isn’t much bad stuff to mention when the subject is Cheap Trick’s new CD, “Rockford.”
Named after the northern Illinois city where the band got its start, “Rockford” is the best CD the group has made since “Heaven Tonight.”
That’s big news for Cheap Trick fans for several reasons.
First off, to put “Rockford” in a class with “Heaven Tonight” is to say it ranks with some of the all-time best power pop albums no small statement.
It’s also a welcome development considering Cheap Trick has had its share of ups and downs since the late 1970s, including the occasional dud of an album, interference with the band’s creative process, and perhaps most frustrating of all for the band, record label turmoil that essentially left two CDs including a fine 1996 self-titled release dead on arrival.
“We’ve gotten rid of our manager that we had for way too long,” Nielsen said. “We got rid of our record company people who felt we’d been around for too long. It’s kind of like a clean slate. It’s like we’re kind of on our own like when we started.”
For Cheap Trick, that start came in 1974, when singer-guitarist Robin Zander joined Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos in the lineup.
The band’s first three albums “Cheap Trick” (1977), “In Color” (1977) and “Heaven Tonight” (1978) were superb, yet overlooked by record buyers. But a concert album, “At Budokan” – an album that originally was only supposed to be released in Japan, where Cheap Trick was already popular yielded the hit “I Want You to Want Me” and turned the group into arena-headlining stars.
The band’s power pop sound has remained intact ever since, but the quality of the subsequent albums has varied significantly. The band, though, showed signs of renewed creative life on its two previous studio CDs, 1996’s “Cheap Trick” and 2003’s “Special One.”
Now with “Rockford,” Cheap Trick really hits on all musical cylinders.
The poppier side of Cheap Trick’s sound emerges brightly on hook-laden Beatle-esque songs such as “If It Takes a Lifetime,” “Every Night and Every Day” and the CD’s first single, “Perfect Stranger.” The latter song was co-written with Linda Perry, the former 4 Non Blondes singer and hit songwriter. Perry (known for her songwriting and producing with Pink) also produced “Perfect Stranger.”
“Linda was a fan and she said she wanted to write with us,” Nielsen said. “Actually we came up with two (songs) and ended up using just one. … It’s nice to have friends like that.”
Some of the best moments on “Rockford,” though, come when Cheap Trick cranks up the crunch and rocks out on songs like “Give It Away,” “Come On Come On Come On” and “This Time You Got It,” the latter of which ends with what may be the tastiest guitar lick the band has ever created.
Throughout the CD, Cheap Trick sounds more energized than it has on a studio album in years, and the group’s smart use of the occasional flame-thrower guitar solo, sweet, judiciously layered vocal harmonies and nifty instrumental flourishes raises the ear candy quotient markedly on many of the songs.
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