{$Cheap Trick}'s recorded work has been so inconsistent for so long, bouncing back and forth between belabored attempts to reach radio and self-conscious returns to their classic early work, it's kind of a shock to discover that 2006's {^Rockford} is a good, solid {$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, All Music Guide