Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick's last great album comes up a bit short in the "songs good enough to hear just before you die" category but it does have the title cut, the creepy-ish "Voices" and "Need Your Love" which at times sounds like Rick Nielsen was listening to a lot of Sabbath. Sabbath? Yes. Weird. The Tom Petersson-sung "I Know What I Want" is the other undeniable classic on here.

In the beginning, Cheap Trick was lovable because they tried to pull off the toughest trick
in the book: making rock that was both bonehead hard and intelligently witty. Rick Nielsen
aspired to nothing less than the kind of working-class-hero reputation he'd found in role
models like Pete Townshend and John Lennon. In the band's finest moments -- Heaven
Tonight, In Color and, especially, the awesome in-concert version of "Surrender"... More >

What's always saved this band for me was the jokes, but this time they're just not in the grooves, and there's only so much you can do with funny hats on the cover. A good heavy metal band, sure--be thankful for the fast tempos. But probably not a great heavy metal band. And you know what happens to good heavy metal bands long about the fifth album. (Grade - B-)