From the Archives: CD review: So Alive

Artists The Bads

Reviewer Daniel Copeland

Put together a singer from When The Cat’s Away and a guy who’s played guitar with Tim Finn and what do you get?  You get Brett Adams and Dianne Swann, or B.A.D.S. – the Bads.
Between them they can name an impressive list of musical inspirations including Neil Young, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and many more.  I’m not suprised; theirs is a sound full of history.
It’s hard to categorize but, as Adams says, “it probably falls into the rock/alt-country label”.  If you care about categorizing music.  Something tells me the Bads themselves don’t.  Personally I think they’d do any folk festival proud.
Swann’s voice is a delight and her lyrics, while deceptively simple, are full of unexpected wisdom:
Show me pictures of leaders crying
Over images of people dying;
Sadness is a valid state of mind.
So Alive does share one unfortunate trait of folk and folksy albums: the ample energy up the front drains gently away as track follows track, giving me a faint impression of showering with the last of the hot water.  Put the CD on Shuffle, that’ll sort it.