It has been seven years since Cheap Trick’s last studio album. A lot has happened. They did release a live album here or there and the three volume set of The Epic Archives, but the biggest change was with the line-up. Bun E. Carlos decided to stop recording and touring and as a result, the band pushed him to the side or moved on without him, however you want to look at it. There were lawsuits back and forth and in the end all was settled. Bun E. Carlos wasn’t in the band anymore, but he was still a part of it. In 2015, he helped write the liner notes for all three of The Epic Archive albums. But when it came to the 17th studio album, ‘Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello!’, Bun E. Carlos was not to be found.
Instead new drummer, Daxx Nielsen, was part of the band. Hmm…that last name sounds familiar. Oh, that’s right, he is the son of guitarists Rick Nielsen. It was the first studio album of their career without Bun E. Carlos and it was the first studio album for the band with a major label in 20 years and that label was Big Machine. When the album was released on April 1, 2016 the album went to #31 on the Billboard Charts and was their highest charting album since 1988’s ‘Lap of Luxury’. Don’t worry that it dropped of the chart in a couple weeks…oh well.
Continue reading “Cheap Trick – ‘Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello’ (2016) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)”
2 Loud 2 Old Music 