ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Click the heels and make a wish – “You can go wherever you wish to go.” Badflower opens their fine new album with a line from the ‘Wizard of Oz’. Dorothy yearns to go home. Even surrounded by a world of wonder, her heart longs for home; that nostalgic sense of belonging, the safe place where it all begins. Universally, and at times of tension, friction or doubt, we all hold on to the belief that ‘there’s no place like home’ – even if it’s not quite as good as we remember, or even if there’s more to celebrate in the real world around us today; a world that can be quite different to the world we see reported on the scrolled feeds on our smartphones.
And so Badflower introduces us to their third studio album. It’s their best yet, no mean feat given what it follows – and, for many, it’s also going to become an early and empathic ‘Album of the Year’ contender. The band’s debut ‘OK I’m Sick’ stopped the clocks as jaws hit the floor – and their follow-up ‘This Is How The World Ends’ bagged ‘Album of the Year’ with Great Music Stories back in 2021, following a massive backing from my rockshow listeners and website followers.
As Badflower has a habit of doing, when they land a new album the bar on what good sounds like instantly goes up a few notches. In a rock world burdened by bands looking back to recreate the past – and bands always being introduced on marketing blurb as who they sound like – Badflower takes guitar music boldly into a new era. Contemporary, daring, brutally honest but richly creative, Badflower’s music makes many of the new classic rock releases coming out sound terribly dated and creatively tired. Badflower sets the gold standard and shares the promise of what guitar music can be for tomorrow.
I haven’t read the accompanying blurb for this album – I write this as I listen to the album for the first time; that first impression of reacting to music and how it makes you feel is so important. I may have picked up a very different message for this album than what was intended but, for me, this album seems to relay stories on the mobile and social media world that for, too many people, has come to define what real is. The way people react to posts, videos and images on their feeds; the way people create a desired pretend-real world in how they present themselves; the dark habits and thoughts people can have in their own online world – but also, the very real feelings and consequences on people’s wellbeing, health and sense of purpose – and even their worldview from the lens of the new media world.
Intended or not, so many of these songs in their anger, confidence, sorrow – and sense of loss – seem to capture the world of a generation glued to their phones. A place where real isn’t what’s happening around them in the moment, it’s what’s on their feed. Much has been documented about the enormous social and health consequences of this generation’s mobile and social media addiction and the palette of narrative and moods on this album reflect this online society we are all part of. We all bemoan the outrageous geo-politics happening right now – its brutality, confrontation, polarity and ability to create hurt and loathing – but we’re all part of it because we all go back to scroll, share, like, observe and comment. With ‘No Place Like Home’, it’s up for debate which world is real, which is home, and whether the world is really as bad as the contrived take on it online. I’ve written this review as I’ve listened to the songs for the first time, and as these opening paragraphs betray, it’s an album that make me think about stuff.
The title track ‘No Place Like Home’ opens this fine album with immediate drama and intent. For me, there’s a sense of a nightmare conveyed through audio and the yearning for a better place – “go back to yesterday”. Given the geo-politicals at the moment, this feels like a very American song and is in the moment. As a song it feels like one of those bad dreams we all have – a fusion of threads, angst, familiar lines, emotive images all mixed up …. a symphony of sounds, images and colours delivered in 4 mins 47. ‘No Place Like Home’ is a real opus of an album opener.
‘Haunting You’ maintains the intensity of the opener before we get to ‘London,’ which will go down well with fans this side of the pond. The mood of the music paints wonderful pictures, a love song about longing – but not done in a sugary way. And the ‘London’ in this song is a far-away place, perhaps a postcard from a place to escape to. Not romanticised – it’s probably more the London we know on a wet Thursday in November. Maybe more Camden than Green Park. A wonderful song with great narrative and pure, natural sentiment.
‘Story Of Our Lives’ is strong and emotionally charged. For me, it was a song with a nod to the debut album. In the age of life on social media being dominated by reels of video shorts, real life can be a film; and being part it, appearing in the credits – or erased from the film edit – can have very real consequences.
The single ‘Snuff’ is next: dark, twisted and a little unhinged – but a great rock song. Badflower always do songs like this so well – the dark juxtaposed as art and done with directness and cleverness – this is art in itself. The copyright segue mid-song is funny, carefree and contemporary. One of the signature joys with Badflower is you never quite know what’s coming next. From the last album, I’m still getting over ‘She Knows’ prematurely finishing before its time was up. The surprise touches from Badflower always keeps the listener on their toes.
‘Swinging Hammer’ is one for the mosh pit. Full attack, but done with class.
‘Detroit’ was a radio single that ran for months on my Friday show. A well-arranged song and, in its core essence, it is very much a radio song. It showcases the melodic side of the band well. On the album track listing, it comes as a bit of a break from the brooding intensity of what went before. ‘Detroit’ is also the second album track named after a place. ‘Detroit’ contrasts well to the song ‘London’: the unhappiness of having it all, versus the escape to what could be.
‘What’s The Point’. Wow. If ever there was a song that captured what a grey day felt like, this is the song. Through sound, the band creates the feelings and moods we feel on a bad day; the lethargy, the emptiness of being in a down place. Here, music is like colours on a canvas taking you into a mood. And for me, this song is all about the mood it captures, and it takes us to a place where most of us have been. Artistically this song is brilliantly done, Badflower serving up proper art, not just nice songs.
‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ is another song with heart-wrenching honesty, where the words and music click perfectly – with themes of regret, lost time and separation that any parent would relate to. Possibly my choice track of the album, the song is hugely emotional in the purity it captures and, compositionally, it’s a perfect song. As with a number of album tracks, the line ‘go back to the start’ reappears throughout the album. In truth, is ‘No Place Like Home’ more an emotional state rather than an actual place? – the longing for past times, where nostalgia is the thing that creates a sense of perfection? It’s about the longing perhaps more than it is about the sense of place.
‘Paws’ is next up. In our recent audio interview, Josh spoke to me about all his cats, and also Barbara the cow, who’s apparently rather handy in the kitchen, when it comes to rustling up a mushroom and chive omelette (you’ll have to listen to our interview to get that). On a serious note, ‘Paws’ seems to be about losing a loved animal – I won’t call them pets, because for many people their animals are their best friends, their world, and losing them can hit home hard. In terms of track sequencing, ‘Paws’ is a great follow-up to ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’; a different mood, but the pair of songs would have made a great double A-side single, at least in the days when people turned their phones off and went to things called record shops (have a look on Wiki if you’re under 40). Going back to the emotive colours evoked by this collection of songs, if side one (for vinyl fans) was dark colours with lots of graphite shades, then the tracks on side two replace the brooding darkness with burnt orange, turquoise and maybe a splash of yellow.
‘Number 1’ is a really well-constructed song, that gives a nod to the trimmings of fame, adulation, the rise to success and the importance of selling. For me there’s also a twist to this song. At a time when many bands are still pushed hard to chase the chart numbers and the perceived trimmings of affirmation, the truth today is the average consumer doesn’t care anymore. Few people could tell you who was number one last week, nobody really cares. Yet bands and hardcore fans are whipped into a frenzy to chase a dream, a frenzy that is unhealthy and in many respects unreal. Is this itself a yearning for the good old days, a time when people all bought records and didn’t feel the need to know what artists had for breakfast or what colour pants they’re wearing? With nostalgia, we like to think the old days were better, but in truth they were just different. And real today is beyond what we actually see hyped on our phones. ‘No Place Like Home’ all over again, but perhaps through a different lens.
‘Let Me Get Something Off My Chest’ is a guitar song. The riffs define the character of this track. It’s a great indie rock anthem – one for the rockers.
A word on the musicianship on this album. One of the things I always like with Badflower albums is you can hear and enjoy the contributions everyone makes. It does feel like a band in the full sense of the word, a collective if you like. I particularly like the drum work on this album – never over-played but always alive and interesting. The bass playing is a great engine and there are so many interesting guitar passages, some front-and-centre and some subtle and contextual – the sense of control and place is good.
Add to all that, the words and the voice and everything just clicks. In summary, one has the sense that this is a band fully in control of what they’re creating and many of the little touches are important to them. This isn’t a band being told what to do, fitting to a template or having a producer or label calling the shots.
The album closes with ‘Butterfly’. As always, Badflower albums end so well, which is an art in itself. Maybe there is a hint of hope or transformation in the album closer – a “time to fly”. Josh sings about it being “time to see myself through better eyes before I went completely blind” and there’s a hint of the life of a performer too with “turn on the stage lights and watch me as I come alive.” This song is heartfelt and sincere but it’s also fragile, as is life, as is music – and as are our hearts; the place where part of us all long for home.
So there we have it – ‘No Place Like Home’. Just as we all get a bit too comfortable with rock albums churning out lyrics about California, babes, cowboy hats (with a few gothic references to hell thrown in for good measure), a Badflower album comes along to wake everyone up. Badlfower are a band for everyone – and they don’t need the relative safety of living within a genre-labelled box because their music is too big to be confined within one.
This is rock for a new era; original, brimming with conviction, classy in song arrangement and intelligent storytelling. And unlike many bands in the rock genre box, it feels like Badflower aren’t over-trying to over-hype or over-impress. The pressure cooker of band marketing so often results in bloated hype. Badflower, plain and simple, are who they are and on their own terms. I find this very refreshing – and it recaptures the essence, the purpose, the very truth of what rock’n’roll should be about.
As a band, Badflower writes about real; they openly capture the dark and the unspoken. The truth about the moods, the ideas, fantasies and the regrets that live in people’s heads Badflower serve up without lip gloss, filters, or editing.
‘No Place Like Home’ holds a mirror up to the world – up close, unapologetic and unfiltered. As always with Badflower, the art is the honesty, the conviction and the truth – and the result is an opus album for our world today.
No Place Like Home is release on 20th June
Pre-order the album in CD and double vinyl formats at: https://badflower.lnk.to/NPLH_UK
For tour news and more information on the band, visit badflowermusic.com
The Band
Josh Katz (lead singer, guitarist)
Joey Morrow (lead guitar, backing vocals)
Alex Espiritu (bass)
Anthony Sonetti (drums)
Explore the Great Music Stories archive for more on Badflower:
The farm cats and Barbara the cow: New album interview with Josh
This is how the world ends (review)
