Rockford

1	Welcome to the World 2:06
2	Perfect Stranger 3:41
3	If It Takes a Lifetime 4:22
4	Come on Come on Come On 3:03
5	O Claire 3:43
6	This Time You Got It 4:01
7	Give It Away 2:48
8	One More 3:50
9	Every Night and Every Day 3:12
10	Dream the Night Away 3:14
11	All Those Years 3:35
12	Decaf 3:38

Barnes & Noble

Rockford, Illinois, has long gone out of its way to pay homage to Cheap Trick -- without a doubt the town's most important export -- and now, more than three decades into their recording career, Rick Nielsen and company return the favor. The 12-track Rockford offers up a veritable crazy-quilt of styles that pick up the flavor of just about every pit stop the quartet have made along their quirk-filled trip through pop culture history. The disc packs more of a punch than any recent Cheap Trick release, with songs like the spiraling riff-fest "Come On Come On Come On" -- which goes the Von Bondies one better in both title and energy level -- and the surprisingly brawny "Welcome to the World." That's but one side of the Rubik's cube presented here, however: "If It Takes a Lifetime" wafts along with the sort of melodic urgency that imbued classics like "Surrender," while "Oh Claire" revisits the whip-smart bubble-pop that colored the margins of much of 1977's In Color. Yes, they also dip into the power balladry that gave them a second commercial life, circa "The Flame," on the Linda Perry-penned "Perfect Stranger" -- which, if nothing else, proves that Robin Zander's croon is still as dreamy as ever. It's only the icing on Rockford's cake, however, and that confection is as multi-layered and filled with surprises as anything Cheap Trick has ever cooked up. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Cheap Trick's recorded work has been so inconsistent for so long, bouncing back and forth between belabored attempts to reach radio and self-conscious returns to their classic early work, it's kind of a shock to discover that 2006's Rockford is a good, solid Cheap Trick record. Scratch that -- it's a very, very good Cheap Trick record, glistening with Beatlesque harmonies, sugary hooks and snarling guitars, and built on a set of songs that emphasize their strengths without seeming fussy or formulaic. They also don't seem tired or juvenile, either, nor do the band try to rock too hard or heavy, the way they did on the good but occasionally stilted Steve Albini-produced 1996 self-styled comeback, Cheap Trick. Albini is back for portions of Rockford, as is Jack Douglas, the producer behind their early masterworks, and 2000 rock's flavor of the month Linda Perry drops by for a single too -- but far from being a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup, it's more that each producer/engineer/collaborator helps bring out a different aspect of Cheap Trick. Sure there are songs that serve up crunching hard rock along with a little bit of streamlined arena rock, but there are pop songs built upon the British Invasion, bittersweet ballads, even a little bit of disco-funk on "One More." When all these different sounds are put together, it does indeed add up to the most diverse album they've made in many a moon, but since there's such a strong emphasis on melody, vocal harmonies, and guitar hooks, all wrapped up in three-minute songs, it also winds up as Cheap Trick's first genuine power pop album since their heyday, and their best album since Dream Police. After all these years and all those uneven albums, it's a bit of a surprise to have the band deliver an album this good completely out of the blue but, as their catalog proves, Cheap Trick have never done things the easy way -- and it's better to finally get a very, very good Cheap Trick record unexpectedly, some 27 years after the last good one, instead of not getting one at all. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Entertainment Weekly

[Grade: B] Cheap Trick haven't sounded this good in years. Brian Raferty

Associated Press

The power-pop quartet from Rockford, Ill., is back to doing what it does best — crafting unforgettable melodies and slathering them in angry guitars and Beatles-esque harmonies atop a pounding rhythm section.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Grade: A] Easily the finest Cheap Trick album in 25 years, "Rockford" has the band revisiting the best parts of its musical travelogue and bringing it all home. Jordan Oakes

The Guardian

For a band who've been together for over three decades still to sound this sprightly...is a minor miracle. Dom Passantino

Hartford Courant

The result: a summer rock record that's loud without being dumb and catchy without sounding manufactured - a neat trick, for certain. Kenneth Partridge