All Washed Up

As it turns out, the kings of power pop still want you to want them. “Go ahead and touch me,” Robin Zander sings on the title track of Cheap Trick’s 21st(!) album. Like so many of the tunes on <i>All Washed Up</i>, it basks in the kind of clever wordplay, breezy melodies and classic rock ’n’ roll feeling that propelled Rockford, Illinois’ finest to superstardom in the late ’70s. The fact that three-quarters of the band’s original lineup—Zander, guitarist Rick Nielsen and bassist Tom Petersson (plus Nielsen’s son Daxx on drums)—are still writing tunes that could’ve appeared on <i>Dream Police</i> or <i>In Color</i> is borne out on the open-road rocker “All Wrong Long Gone”, the wistful “Bad Blood” and the heavenly harmonies of lead single “Twelve Gates”.