Decades ago, Bryan Ferry succumbed to an ailment that I’ve dubbed “Cheap Trick Syndrome”: that is, when young, hungry artists winkingly dive into a genre with tongue planted firmly in cheek but eventually become the very thing they were once all but parodying. Cheap Trick’s gleeful, over-the-top late-70s take on arena rock devolved by the 80s into soggy, irony-free, lighters-aloft anthems such as “The Flame” (they share the category “bands who’ve gone from fun to flaccid” with Van Halen).…
Decades ago, Bryan Ferry succumbed to an ailment that I’ve dubbed “Cheap Trick Syndrome”: that is, when young, hungry artists winkingly dive into a genre with tongue planted firmly in cheek but eventually become the very thing they were once all but parodying. Cheap Trick’s gleeful, over-the-top late-70s take on arena rock devolved by the 80s into soggy, irony-free, lighters-aloft anthems such as “The Flame” (they share the category “bands who’ve gone from fun to flaccid” with Van Halen).…