Baddies – Do The Job
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After what seems a long time from first hearing Baddies supporting Reuben just under a year and a half ago, the Southend quartet bring forth their debut album and a quite awful album cover (it’s a mess, looks like a school kid made it with some cardboard and Pritt stick glue!). That night they impressed with the look similar to Kraftwerk (with their matching blue shirts) and a sound similar to The Futureheads, but with a more frantic pace. With a live set that’s so unique the question is how do you convert that to a album without taking anything away? Converting a excellent live sound to a album fails more often than not due to production that strips away allot of the rawness that makes a good live band sound awful on cd. This is where the production has to be credited as Baddies sound just as good coming out of your headphones as they do out of speakers at a gig.
Virtually every song has its own way of reaching out to you, slap you in the face, shake you up abit and make you a believer in all things Baddies. It’s only near the end of the album that the quality of what you’re hearing lowers, and snaps you out of your musical trance. Singles “Battleships” and “Holler For My Holiday” set the stall, but songs like “Open One Eye” and “We Beat Our Chests” are the true stand out songs that refuse to be forgotten so quickly. Guitars, whilst not breaking any new barriers provide an enthralling backdrop that now and again comes to the forefront and takes the songs by the neck! It just shows that you don’t have to be a riff master to have good guitar songs, and Baddies have them here in abundance.
There are a few moments of madness, most notably on album closer “Paint The City” where Michael Webster starts shouting out random colours as the album ends on a laughing at moment (and not in a good way). It is possible that the album’s last ability could be questionable, the first few listens are terrific but in the future months and even years it will be interesting to see if this album still hit’s the mark. For me that will all come down to what Baddies do for their next album, stick with what they have or go down a different, more serious path. A path that has been the downfall of many promising bands, and Baddies could defiantly fall in that category at some point! For now thou they have the look and the sound of a band that could (and I stress could) make their mark in albums to come.
Rating: 
1. Tiffany, I’m Sorry
2. Open One Eye
3. Battleships
4. Colin
5. At The Party
6. Pisces
7. We Beat Our Chests
8. Holler For My Holiday
9. I Am Not A Machine
10. To The Lions
11. Who Are You?
12. Paint The City
Songs to try before you buy: Open One Eye, Battleships, At The Party, We Beats Our Chests, Holler For My Holiday,
Song To Avoid: To The Lions
