BAD COMPANY: ROUGH DIAMONDS (1982)
1) Electricland; 2) Untie The
Knot; 3) Nuthin' On The TV; 4) Painted Face; 5) Kickdown; 6) Ballad Of The Band;
7) Cross Country Boy; 8) Old Mexico; 9) Downhill Ryder; 10) Racetrack.
A completely misguided, fatal failure here.
Apparently, the band was not «feeling well» in the early 1980s, due to
personal problems, exhaustion, and, according to some sources, a certain disappointment
in their image and the whole rock star thing, brought on by the deaths of
labelmate John Bonham and soulmate (you wish) John Lennon. Thus, following up
on their hearts' desires, they decided to make a more «personal», «darker»
record than usual.
They forgot one important thing, though: dark
and personal albums absolutely require musical genius in order to make their point. Just to select a few minor
chords, sew them up in a traditionally honored way, and let Paul Rodgers take
care of the rest won't do. But that is exactly how the band preferred to behave anyway, dumping most of their
«conquests» on Desolation Angels —
all the disco and New Wave influences — in favor of the good old brand, without
any interesting riffs but with a lot of feeling. Paul Rodgers isn't feeling too
good, and he wants you to tear your
sorry little ass out of the embraces of Thriller
and know it. Obey!
Okay, it isn't really that gloomy. Actually, the album does veer between the usual
mid-tempo not-so-hard-rock in the pangs of depression, and a set of cheerier, more evidently danceable R'n'B numbers with
heavy emphasis on saxophone support, provided by guest star and one-time Boz
Burrell's colleague in King Crimson, Mel Collins. On any other album most of
these numbers would just look stupid, but here, stuff like ʽBallad Of The Bandʼ
is at least a temporary respite from hearing Rodgers complain about life's
treachery on interchangeable dreck like ʽKickdownʼ and ʽElectriclandʼ. (Yes,
the former is a sincere lament built upon horror brought on by the Lennon
murder. No, it isn't a good song at all. The very fact of Lennon's death did
not exactly set off an extra wave of genius inspiration in people).
For objectivity's sakes, I can list a few
scraps of relative goodness. John Cook's piano intro to ʽCross Country Boyʼ (apparently
three or four seconds out of one hundred and seventy). The dumb, but sticky
five-note riff in ʽDownhill Ryderʼ (but why the ʽyʼ?). Mick Ralphs' excellent
slide guitar part on ʽRaceʼ — a last-moment set of gorgeously strung chords,
totally wasted in the context of an otherwise pedestrian song on an otherwise pedestrian
album. Not much, eh?
All right: for total objectivity, I must say that the overall sound of Rough Diamonds is fairly decent for a
1982 album. The new style of mainstream-oriented production had not yet taken
over fully, and electronic support is used quite sparingly: a few synth parts
here and there, but no attempt to let the robots take over the real men. On
the other hand, in 1982 this couldn't be qualified as a brave,
integrity-boosting artistic move. It just meant the new standards hadn't yet
been fully established. By 1986, the band would catch on. In short, nothing
saves Rough Diamonds from a
predictable thumbs
down — not even the fact that ʽElectriclandʼ scored relatively well
on the single charts. Everything that had to do with Lennon's death scored well
on the charts, so it doesn't really count.
Check "Rough Diamonds" (MP3) on Amazon
I have a horrible feeling you're going to persist all the way to the end of the line. You do realize this is going to be even more of a train wreck than the later 80's Beach Boys catalog?
ReplyDeleteGreat Hipgnosis cover art, though. Right up there with the "doctors" cover of Rainbow's album, "(Something Or Other)".
ReplyDeleteYour original review of this was much more fun.
ReplyDeleteThe review of this album on the old site is a masterpiece of understated invective.
ReplyDelete