REVIEW: Bad Brains God of Love (Maverick/Warner Brothers)
- Martin Bate
It's impossible to talk about Bad Brains without mentioning their hugely important history. Their '82 debut, the self titled Roir cassette (later tarted up with the aid of The Cars' Ric Ocasek and put out as Rock for Light) is the best DC hardcore album of all time. All the more startling was that it was the product of four Rastafarians and featured a couple of fluid reggae songs in amongst the precision punk. The legend was born.
Their second album arrived in 1986 and blew people away yet again. I Against I pretty much single-handedly invented the whole collision- rock thing, with funk, reggae, blues, hardcore and metal all mixed into one whole several years before Living Colour et al brought their wares into the mainstream. By all rights, Bad Brains should have gone on to conquer the world.
But the band moved in fits and starts as charismatic but unpredictable frontman HR periodically would decide he was fed up with loud guitars and would leave the band, heading off to work in a more traditional reggae vein with drummer, brother Earl Hudson, only to return months later.
The third album in 1990, Quickness was a little disappointing by their own standards, re-affirming their strengths with little forward movement. Then HR walked away for the umpteenth time - this time, seemingly for good.
The band's surprise replacement was ex-Faith No More singer Chuck Mosely. This partnership split amicably after a year or so of touring with Chuck stating that they wanted "If not HR, then *an* HR".
And indeed, his successor Josef Israel I was on first appearances an HR clone a little too close for comfort. But a decent, varied (if a little too polished and redolent of the bands *they* influenced in places) major-label debut Rise, coupled with heavy touring saw Josef stake his claim, gradually stamping his own personality on the live shows and at last providing the band with a sense of stability.
Most people were surprised then, and a little disappointed, to hear that HR was back in the fold late last year. All the fears and suspicions were upheld in mid-May when, on their first night of an arena tour supporting the Beastie Boys, HR decided he didn't want to play and beat-up Bad Brains manager and then brother Earl before disappearing, only to be found next day when he tried to cross the Canadian border in posession of a large supply of marijuana. The band announced they were not just parting with HR but splitting.....
Only to then say 3 weeks later that they're putting the incident behind them and re-joining the Beasties tour. God of Love their fifth studio album, and fourth with HR entered the Billboard charts at number 20 on release. Bad Brains day may finally be arriving if HR can keep his head.
And so finally to the new album. The first thing that old fans will notice is that there's way more reggae offered than before, the album being split more or less 50/50 between reggae and rock. Whether this is a concession to HR or not isn't clear, but it doesn't really matter because in the tradition of Bad Brains reggae exploits, it's all top stuff. In particular, "Long Time" moves on a wicked, dirty skank and "Big Fun" is a languid summer vibe with both featuring horns. In addition, "To the Heavens" is nicely off-kilter, its groove being offset by ambient effects bouncing about the place, and the closing "How I Love Thee" just floats *beautifully* for six minutes.
But then there's the rock stuff....
Admittedly the production is a huge problem. Ric Ocasek re-joins for the first time since Rock for Light and turns in an erratic performance in the producer's chair. Where the reggae stuff has meaty bass, clean drums and shimmering guitar, the rock stuff has only muddy instruments thudding away in the mix. It gives the album a disjonted feel, but Bad Brains themselves aren't without blame.
The songs themselves are far from strong. The title-track is too much bluster and not enough song, "Thank Jah" gains little from a falsetto vocal and "Tongue Tee Tie" is just plain unexciting. Where the lack of structure in the reggae material is fine, allowing things to groove along at their own pace, when the big riffs start it leaves the songs floundering for three minutes going nowhere. The exceptions are the soul- metal of "Justice Keepers" and the opening "Cool Mountaineer" where HR's smooth croon glides over trademark Bad Brains sledge-hammer guitars which shift between a groove and a thrash.
In fact HR's singing throughout is what keeps the whole thing afloat even when the riffs and sound are lacking. His soulful wailing and crooning is distinctive to say the least, often setting up heart tugging dischordances within the music. In addition, his lyrics and delivery have a spiritual energy and passion - as with Quickness almost everything here has a link to God/Jah - that's refreshing.
Ultimately, though far from bad, this is a bit disappointing. But the live shows will split heads as always with their core of classic material. There's enough good stuff here to justify Bad Brain's existence in 1995 but their highly influential past is still proving a little hard to live up to.
