Ben Greenman on Cheap Trick

"Cheap Trick’s latest album is one of its trickiest yet, from the winking title ('The Latest') on down. The first single, 'When the Lights Are Out,' is a cover of an old Slade song—an old cover of an old Slade song, actually, recorded in 1976 and rescued from the Cheap Trick vaults—that fits the original over the galloping drumbeat of the band’s early hit 'ELO Kiddies.' Throughout, in fact, the group (still composed of the guitarist Rick Nielsen, the singer Robin Zander, the bassist Tom Petersson, and the drummer Bun E. Carlos) plays fast and loose with its own history. The sparkling 'Miss Tomorrow' is a leftover from Zander’s early-nineties solo career. … Elsewhere, the group continues to do what it has always done, balancing delicate balladry ('Miracle,' which has another highly Lennon-like vocal) with skewed popcraft. … Sometimes, they do both in the same song: 'Closer, the Ballad of Burt and Linda' is a soaring love song about Burton Pugach, the New York lawyer who spent fourteen years in prison for hiring thugs to throw lye in the face of his girlfriend and future wife, Linda Riss. … Moving confidently into the future while remaining convincingly rooted in the past? Now that’s a neat trick" ("Pop Notes," New Yorker, 7/27/09).