CHEAP TRICK – In Another World (2021)

CHEAP TRICK has been releasing albums since the year Jimmy Carter took over for Gerald Ford. Their upcoming, ”In Another World”, is their 20th. That’s four of five careers in regular band years, and their first studio effort since 2017.
It sounds like classic Cheap Trick, a band that will never voluntarily quit. The energy is still there, the dedication to the craft of writing power-pop rocking songs is still there, Zander’s vocals are intact, and the elder Nielsen’s guitar tone still sounds like it could chip rust off an old battleship.

In this world, 2021, and even more with the pandemic, few major classic rock outlets play rock ‘n’ roll, particularly new stuff, and all we can do is be thankful for the longevity and endless creativity of the quartet from Rockford, Illinois.
Since their first album in 1977, Cheap Trick has consistently put out perfectly polished power-pop and hard rock gems, and that tradition continues here.

“Here Comes The Summer” makes a bid for seasonal immortality, in much the same way that Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” will be played on the radio every June until the end of time. It’s a track they started playing live, under the name “The Summer Looks Good On You” early last year before the pandemic shut concerts down.
The title track appears twice here, first as a lush ballad, and later, as a fully amped-up garage band jam; it’s delightful to hear the song shed its delicate cocoon and blossom into a full-speed-ahead rocker with glorious feedback, booming bass and pounding drums.
And their decades-long Beatles crush surfaces again here with a cover of John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.”

Singer Robin Zander sounds exactly as he did nearly 45 years ago, and hasn’t lost a thing off his fastball. And Tom Petersson, who pioneered the 12-string bass, lays down a bottom so full and chunky it’s hard to believe this four-piece band has only one guitar and one bass.
”In Another World”, their twentieth studio album, is one of their best yet. As ever the band appear to have listened to both every record ever made and nothing at all since 1977. Riffs pile upon riffs like dogs in a basket, harmonies are layered upon other harmonies, and everything sounds like polished thunder.
HIGHLY Recommended

01. Here Comes the Summer
02. Quit Waking Me Up
03. Another World
04. Boys & Girls & Rock N Roll
05. The Party
06. Final Days
07. So It Goes
08. Light Up the Fire
09. Passing Through
10. Here’s Looking At You
11. Another World Reprise
12. I’ll See You Again
13. Gimme Some Truth

Robin Zander – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Rick Nielsen – lead guitar, backing vocals
Tom Petersson – bass, backing vocals
Bun E. Carlos – drums, occasional backing vocals
Daxx Nielsen – drums

Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Another-World-Cheap-Trick/dp/B08TZ9LXPG