In a recent interview, I asked Bad Flowers main-man Tom about the album’s recording because I couldn’t quite believe that it had been recorded piecemeal, over a period of months. Certainly, from the raw energy that sparks and crackles out of opening number ‘Thunder Child’, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were listening to some long-lost live recording from the seventies, and those energy levels rarely dip across the eleven tracks that comprise the band’s fearsome debut album.
Opening with the aforementioned ‘Thunder Child’, the Bad Flowers set about making their mark with a hard rocking, psychedelic beast of an opener that simply floods from the speakers. Tom, a softly-spoken individual outside of the band, comes across like a manic preacher, his voice straining at the leash as Dale Tonks and Karl Selickis lay down the most explosive of backdrops behind him. The opener is no fluke either, as ‘Lions Child’ so ably demonstrates, Tom nursing his guitar to the sort of glorious, Hendrix-aping climax that will have air guitarists everywhere widdling along madly in time. With a gargantuan, Rival Sons-esque surge, ‘Secrets’ has a glorious chorus that reaches for (and hits) the stars, anchored only by Dale’s earthen rumble. Things head into a darker groove with ‘Rich Man’, a taut rocker with hints of Royal Blood and the Picturebooks mixed up in its DNA. Very much Karl’s show, despite Tom’s bravura performance, there’s a scything energy to his percussion that will leave you breathless. The first sign of the band slowing down appears with the acoustic ballad ‘I hope’, a track so deceptively simple that it belies the youthful energy found elsewhere, tapping into a simple sincerity that damn near breaks the heart. Wisely stripping the song down to its acoustic roots, it is here, shorn of the fire and the fury, that the emotional core of the band can be found.
Despite opening on a quiet, almost introspective note, ‘Let’s misbehave’ steadily builds up its head of steam, whilst its assertion that “life’s too short, to behave” is pretty much the most concise rock ‘n’ roll manifesto since AC/DC sang “let there be rock!” The track neatly sets up the second half of the album and by the time the band hit us squarely between the eyes with the foaming majesty of ‘who needs a soul’ we’re ready for exactly the rock ‘n’ roll ride they provide. Strip away the soul and ‘Be your man’ is practically garage rock with its stinging riff, Tom delivering his lines with a swagger as his band once again lay down the weightiest of foundations. It’s rousing stuff fast, furious and fun and you can easily imagine this setting the band’s live set on fire. A hint of Iggy emerges on the tough-as-nails ‘Hurricane’, the sort of track that would slam into the charts with a bullet in years gone by. A perfect example of the band’s ability to tie the most glorious of melodies to the most explosive of riffs, ‘hurricane’ is an album highlight and it is followed by the Black Country Communion stomp of ‘I don’t believe it’, Dale channelling Glenn Hughes even as Tom summons the spirit of Mr Mojo Rising for a track that sees the album hurtling towards its end with dizzying speed. Final track ‘city lights’ leaves the listener both elated and yet very much wanting more, the taut riff and prowling bass offering up a darker edge to the band’s music that bodes well for album number two. On the strength of this outing, it can’t come soon enough.
With eleven tracks dispatched over just forty-one minutes, ‘starting gun’ is a satisfyingly svelte album that steadfastly refuses to outstay its welcome. It hits hard and often, deftly pairing exemplary musicianship and deadly hooks with devastating effect and the result is an album that, even at this early stage of the year, looks set to appear heavily in album-of-the-year lists. This is just the start for the Bad Flowers, but you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll be hearing a hell of a lot more from this mighty power trio. 9
