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Cheap Trick — All Washed Up (BMG)

All Washed Up? Not a bit of it.

Twenty-one albums in and the original pop rockers still have that canny knack for crafting cute lyrics around some decidedly dreamy melodies.

Cheap Trick are the value-for-money charmers who know what they love and love what they do.

Regularly dipping into punk, garage and AOR, theirs is a creative hybrid that’s long since had us hooked.

If you’re from a generation warmed by The Flame (that’s us, right there) then All Washed Up’s just what the doctor ordered on these dark November nights.

But if your love affair with Robin Zander and co. stretches back to the band’s spikier 70s roots — and the classics In Color and Dream Police — then don’t fret.

You see this often sounds more like a career-defining Best Of than a standalone new release as the Tricksters lean on just about every phase of a colourful past.

That’s not to say All Washed Up’s a calculated exercise in people pleasing.

Zander, Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson are way beyond writing a record simply to satisfy trends or — in 21stcentury speak — appeal to the algorithm.

Ironically, the last time they did pander to the public was on 1988’s Lap Of Luxury (featuring The Flame) — a commercial success that didn’t necessarily chime with early adopters.

All Washed Up is fresh, fun and typically Tricky. Seems you never lose the magic.

Trick and treat

All Wrong Long Gone is the chunkiest thing we’ve heard from Zander and co. in some time.

Its AC/DC-meets-Joan Jett groove grabs the attention and girdles the loins.

Think Cheap Trick at their teasing, tantalising, tongue-in-cheek best.

And then hit reset… because there’s nothing else like this on All Washed Up.

This a record that stays true to a legacy without every straying into lame imitation.

It’s the inimitable sound of vintage Nielsen with the added twist of next generation juice.

Lead single Twelve Gates already had the critics chattering with its Tom Petty-styled American songbook cool.

And Bad Blood’s a bold example of Cheap Trick using that trademark wordplay to brilliant effect.

Zander’s enduring tone has barely changed in 50 years and it seems age is just a number for the flawless frontman: close your eyes and it could still be 1978 and the Budokan all over again.

Love Gone introduces a Bowie/Beatles vibe that’s still cheeringly Cheap Trick.

And whacky set closer Wham Boom Bang is delightfully divergent.

All Washed Up proves class is permanent. Cheap Trick: richly rewarding.