We're All Alright (2017)
1. You Got It Going On
2. Long Time Coming
3. Nowhere
4. Radio Lover
5. Lolita
6. Brand New Name on an Old Tattoo
7. Floating Down
8. She's Alright
9. Listen To Me
10.The Rest of My Life
--Bonus Tracks--
11.Blackberry Way
12.Like a Fly
13.If You Still Want My Love
You could call it karmic retribution—or perhaps divine irony—that Cheap Trick, once outpaced by the very acts they inspired, are now enjoying the sort of late-career resurgence that most rock bands only dream of. While their draw no longer fills coliseums (they now seem content with intimate 800-seaters and the odd state fair slot), the quality of their recent work suggests a band more interested in fire than fame. The critical press, long overdue, has begun to catch up.
Following 2016’s Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello, We’re All Alright arrives as its fraternal twin—cut from the same sonic cloth, perhaps even stitched in the same studio with the same crew. The lineup remains stable, with Daxx Nielsen on drums and Julian Raymond in the producer’s chair, and the result is a heady cocktail of what Cheap Trick have always done best: no-frills power pop, swaggering barroom rock, and a few nods toward their mop-top influences.
The album wears its aggression proudly, with tracks like Nowhere and Radio Lover ripping through their Ramones cosplay with such conviction that you can’t help but admire the tribute. It’s pastiche, but it's passionate. If You Got It Going On and Brand New Name on an Old Tattoo teeter toward glam-metal parody—think Mötley Crüe in eyeliner and dad sneakers—it’s forgivable, largely because the band seems in on the joke. These aren’t reinventions; they’re reminders. Cheap Trick haven’t forgotten how to sound like themselves.
Not everything lands. She’s Alright, a song seemingly exhumed from Robin Zander’s solo aspirations, falls flat. It’s neither hooky nor heartfelt enough to belong here. It floats past like a B-side that mistook itself for a centerpiece.
Then there’s the curious case of the bonus tracks—three additional songs tacked onto the deluxe edition of the album that outshine many of the core ten. Most noteworthy is a riotous, glam-sprinkled cover of The Move’s Blackberry Way, which somehow manages to feel more essential than several of the originals. That these were relegated to extra status borders on the absurd. For any serious fan—or anyone with ears—the standard issue simply doesn’t cut it.
Taken together, We’re All Alright may not scale the heights of Cheap Trick’s glory years, but it stands as irrefutable proof: the band has not only found their footing again—they’ve been dancing on it for the better part of a decade. Forget the wilderness years of the '80s. This is the sound of a band aging with fire in their bellies and tongues in their cheeks.
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