Burnin' Sky Review

07/13/2005 4:26 AM, AMG


The string finally ran out for Bad Company with its fourth album. Their approach was so simple that it almost inevitably became formulaic, and although Mick Ralphs continued to screech with his sparse guitar leads and Paul Rodgers continued to present his lust in a soulful voice -- well, one had heard it all before several times by now, hadn't one? A band that begins life declaring "I can't get enough of your love" doesn't really have anywhere to go, and by this, its fourth album, Bad Company was getting sloppy around the edges, tossing in a '50s pastiche in "Everything I Need," crooning "The Happy Wanderer" as if they were on a drunken pub crawl. There were plenty of those patented ominous mid-tempo rockers, too, of course, but nothing you'd want to add to the set list. Of course, the real reason this was the first Bad Company to miss the Top 10 in the U.S. and the U.K. is that last point: no hit single. Clearly, it was time to try something new, but after three years of stadium rocking, what the band wanted to try instead was a vacation -- they weren't heard from again for two years. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide