Label: Audio Fidelity (US), AFZ 117
Style: Hard Rock, Blues Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 38:50
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 254 Mb
Charts: UK #3, AUS #8, CAN #3, FR #13, GER #47, NDL #19, NOR #6, NZ #13, US #3. UK & CAN: Gold; US: 3x Platinum.
Among
the members of Bad Company, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke
witnessed the collapse of Free, guitarist Mick Ralphs witnessed the
collapse of Mick Ralphs in Mott the Hoople and bassist Boz Burrell
participated in King Crimson's stagnation. In the aftermath of their
extraordinarily popular debut LP of last year, Bad Company appears
determined not to fall into the traps of any of those groups. While
retaining all of the spontaneous combustion of the earlier album —
which, like Straight Shooter, was recorded "live" by mobile units — they
managed to refine their musical energy, give it sharper direction and
come up with fistfuls of apparently innocuous but totally effective hard
rock surprises.
The album leaps to life with Mick Ralphs's logical
followup to his "Can't Get Enough" hit, "Good Lovin' Gone Bad." The
sparse, powerhouse sound of the band is still intact but has been
developed into a crazy quilt of intertwining sounds. Ralphs's lethal
guitar is more constructive and controlled than in the past, neatly
unifying lead runs with rhythm work. Boz has expanded his bass realm
and, naturally enough, drummer Kirke has followed suit. Rodgers, true to
form, plugs up any unfilled gaps with such sage ad-libs as "Wot a
sayuh," "Ooowah" and the perennial favorite "uhhHUH."
Dismissed by
some as the offshoot of the "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" style of Free,
Bad Company lets it be known that they have a brand of music uniquely
their own in the three compositions penned by Rodgers and Ralphs. "Deal
with the Preacher," "Feel like Makin' Love" and "Wild Fire Woman"
experiment with dynamics in a manner totally alien to the first album.
Forsaking the constant thunderthudding drone motif of '74 in favor of a
more textured approach, the group uses subdued acoustic guitar and tight
vocal harmonies during most of the verses, saving the harsh electrical
shocks for the head-slamming choruses. It's a relatively simple "calm
before the storm" setup, but Bad Company milks it for all its
effectiveness.
Simon Kirke gets actively involved in the evolution of
Bad Company's music, dispelling the myth that drummers are just there
to keep the beat and keep their mouths shut, by contributing two songs
of his own, "Anna" and "Weep No More." The first, a ballad, was
originally heard on the Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit release of a
few years ago. It was vapid then and age has not improved it. Hearing
Paul Rodgers croon lines like:
Got a sweet little angel
And I love her so
She's there when I need her
She understands when I say go
is
downright embarrassing. (Unless the "angel" in question is a large and
faithful doggie.) Happily, Kirke redeems himself with "Weep No More," a
shuffle of the first magnitude which comes alive with honky-tonk piano,
beefy organ surges and a strong appearance by an omnipresent string
section. As awful as that looks on paper it works nicely on record.
Now
if all this modest experimentation hasn't been praiseworthy enough,
Paul Rodgers inadvertently plays a winning hand at "can you top this" by
testing his mettle as a solo songwriter and passing with flying colors.
After a few years of hovering on the threshold of proficiency, Paul
gets it down right with "Call on Me," a delightful excursion into the
"reach out, I'll be there" school of sexual politics, which leaves ample
space for a few scintillating solos by Ralphs.
The piece de
resistance of the album, however (and the highpoint of Paul's writing
career), is the off-the-cuff rock narrative, "Shooting Star." Abandoning
his "oowah bayuhbe I luvah yuh" approach to poetry, Rodgers nearly
assumes the role of the Harry Chapin of crotch rock as he casually
recounts the chilling tale of a young rock star … from beginning to end.
Johnny died last night
Died in his bed
Bottle of whiskey, sleeping tablets by his head
Johnny's life passed him by like a warm summer's day
If you listen to the wind you can still hear him play.
The
calculated effect of the song is made stronger by its low-keyed
approach to melodrama. Guitars drone, bass and drums rumble and Rodgers
ends the uptempo dirge with a series of wailing "woowah"s and various
nasal chants.
It would seem that the gutsy rock band everyone thought
of as Free's bastard son has come into its own, and powerfully at that.
Straight Shooter is a fine example of contemporary rock & roll but,
more than that, it is an exciting second step forward by a fledgling
band that looks like it may be around for a long time to come. In spite
of its visual allusions to the world of gambling (flying dice and crap
tables abound on the cover), Straight Shooter is a sure thing for the
rock addict: a winning band in anyone's book.
(rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/straight-shooter-246689/)
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