Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The inference by many that rock has had its day, that the new generations coming through are no longer influenced by the thrilling demands of its riffs and lyrical bounty are to be frank, not only hogwash, but almost insulting to the genre. Classic Rock is by no means All Washed Up, indeed it has the continuing power to charm and inspire with weighted authority of rebellion that many others wish they could match.
It is not a result of deception or musical fraudulence, it is the seriousness of theatre gripped in a sound that advocates the heartbeat faster, that implores as a herald would, the gift of independence wrapped up in a scrupulousness of inside information on the soul’s true leanings. All washed up? No! Even in the hands of true classic rock bands it is only just getting started.
This is, despite the fact that Cheap Trick are now on their 21st studio album and more than fifty years since they formed, displayed with sheer positive cool, and not an ounce of false bravado to be found in place; just a scintillating, touching album’s worth of heat that conjures up the image of consistency and reliability in one continuous sweep of energetic beat.
Produced by long time musical comrade Julian Raymond, All Washed Up is a swathe of the lush and the fierce, the observant and a measure of the creative psychodelia, filled with power-pop elements that more than nod to their heroes of 60s British music which immerses the listener in such a way through conquest and reassurance becomes second nature, capturing and captivating without fear.
Across tracks such as the singles Twelve Gates and the superb The Riff That Won’t Quit, the threesome of Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, and Robin Zander, along with the aforementioned Julian Raymond, and a selected celebration of musicianship framing the effect, The Best Thing, Bad Blood, Dancing With The Band, and A Long Way To Worcester combine to not only appeal, but to unshackle the drama and let it loose to infect with pleasure every sinew of the human soul.
A terrific album, All Washed Up is a cleansing of the spirit and one that sets out to purify the belief of sound.
Ian D. Hall