Sunday
Mar062016
Cheap Trick New Song and Video!
Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 12:01AM
Happy Sunday! Cheap Trick just released the video for their new song "When I Wake Up Tomorrow." The song is from the upcoming album Bang, Zoom, Crazy ... Hello.
Reader Comments (18)
The result is a song that sound vaguely like both 'Trick and Bowie, but nowhere near as inspiring as either. The song sounds as drawn as the band looks amidst the undulating lights and moody shadows thus drawn.
Sad thing? This is still not a bad song. But that isn't what 'Trick or Bowie are known for producing. So a tribute sounds like a one off or an off take.
As ELO once said, don't bring me down . . . unless the journey is going to make it worth the effort.
Wonder what Carlos thinks? _Blackstar_ anyone?
Zzzzzzzzzzzander and company really need to wake up by listening to their albums first three albums and watching the concerts circa 1978 and '79 they've posted on their YouTube channel, etc. to remind themselves of what they're capable of doing, something that should be a far cry from this BORING crap!
And who shot this stupid video? This is what we get from newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers? If it weren't for those first three studio albums plus Budokan, Yenner ought to retract the induction! Utterly disappointing!
As far as it not being 1978, there are plenty of new bands influenced by that era... You name it -- Pop, Hard Rock, Metal, Glam Metal, and Electronica are all genres where you can hear inspiration from 60's, 70's and 80's era music with those new bands wearing their influences on their sleeves. Even the other track posted by Allyson not too long ago from Trick's new album sounds like an amalgamam (read "hodge podge", unfortunately) of 60's Beatles, 70's ELO, Raspberries and Trick themselves.
p.s. New bands I think you would particularly enjoy, Bob, who slavishly sound like the 70's are Cats In Space and The Night Flight Orchestra. Enjoy!
To me, they really started to jump the shark with "Dream Police". That was such a level down from "Heaven Tonight" and they never regained that level again. Except for a few songs here and there after the first 3 albums, Nielson and company really lost their knack for songwriting, unfortunately, especially since it had just been so brilliant up to that point.
I don't think that imitation (hell, I enjoy Kingdom Come) or homage (I enjoy the Page/Plant reinterpretations of their classic cuts . . . even if that is a bit of an ego-stroke form of homage!) is a problem. Let's even bring Ward--by proxy--back into the mix: some of those Nativity in Black I and II cuts are a great example of the form (granted, they are takes on the original songs . . . riskier, in some ways, than simply adopting a "feel" or "sound" of that which inspired).
It's when a band capable of a lot more--even now--pays respect to an artist of such wide-ranging influence and makes both seem slight. Like I said, this isn't a bad song. But is that the standard by which we want to judge Cheap Trick? This is news. Not a new addition to the rotation on whatever it is we listen to music on these days. That says something.
I hate to go all conspiracy theory on this, but I will: Cheap Trick has been a business, first and foremost, for quite a while. The Carlos situation hammered that home for me. And businesses--KISS, Metallica, Motley Crue, etc., etc.--do not a "hungry" and "inspired" song (usually) make.
That is another one of those sniff tests: when you take a long loved, if long in the tooth, band and say: "Wow, that sounds like the good stuff" it usually means said stuff has been in short supply for a long time. In this case, you go "Hmm, sorta' sounds like Bowie" or, for some of you, "Kinda' sounds like one of their better songs." Neither of which is a ringing endorsement.
Now, if they would put that same sense of perfectionism into the creation of new music, we would stand a better chance of getting something more listenable. That said, my last comment is probably a more accurate reality.
And, for the sake of argument, let's combine our opinions: blown synapses and business-based calculations do not a raging slab of classic rock make. To which we could add: a whiff of nepotism (no offense to Daxx) rarely makes for an overall "hungry" vibe in the studio, though I don't think Wolfie hurt VH save for the backing vocals, nor did Corabi's son hurt his latest tour . . . though those are birds of entirely different colors.
Top it off with "Live at Budokan" and it's non studio LP masterpieces, "Lookout" and the transcendentally reinvented Fats Domino cover, "Ain't That A Shame" and you've got a body of work to rival, if not surpass many an inductee!
Reread what I wrote. No denying the classics you reference. I was simply noting that their recent output is hemmed in by considerations that make approaching that level of brilliance harder and harder.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Nothing's hemming them in from making albums that pay homage to Cheap Trick, ELO, The Raspberries and even .38 Special, yet are vastly superior to anything one of their own inspirations, Cheap Trick has put out since 1979.