In the seven years since Cheap Trick‘s last album, the usual things that sometimes happen to bands that have been around as long as they have happened. They lost their longtime drummer (who’s been replaced by guitarist Rick Nielsen‘s son), they switched record companies and they’re going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Not that any of this really affects their 17th album, Bang, Zoom, Crazy … Hello. Cheap Trick haven’t altered much since their 1977 self-titled debut. Not that they really could anyway. Guitars may get louder here and there, hand claps may power a song or two and they may give a passing nod to one of their influences occasionally, but the band’s basic foundation — ’60s rock ‘n’ roll filtered through the succeeding decades, mostly the ’70s — has remained the same. It’s pretty much part of their DNA by now. The new album is set to release on April 1st.