BADFLOWER: Ok, I'm Sick (ALTERNATIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Things have gone pretty fast for the Californian band Badflower since its creation in 2013 by four musicians from Los Angeles. A first EP in 2013 followed by another of three titles in 2016 sharpened the interests of listeners and professionals until the release of the single ‘Ghost’ in 2018, which was widely distributed on all American commercial platforms. The quartet is embarking on the composition of its first album "Ok, I'm Sick" for a release in early 2019.

"Ok, I'm Sick" is an alternative rock record that is quite conventional in its form and pleasant in its content. The album is well stocked with a great start thanks to ‘xANAx’ with a groove and freshness reminiscent of Stevie Salas followed by a collection of mid-tempi with melodic qualities based on an identical scheme, namely calm verses and more removed choruses. Badflower maintains an overall level of quality, even if some redundancies are deplored, between the excellent ‘We're In Love’ which uses certain techniques heard at Pineapple Thief and the more ordinary ‘Daddy’.

If this comfortable modality is favoured by Americans, they show an ease in the more progressive compositions, in the sense that they increase in intensity, as illustrated by ‘Heroin’ and its dynamic breakage or ‘Cry’, its martial gravity and its interesting string arrangements. Badflower remains a collective of young musicians whose rock spirit is nevertheless expressed with a certain talent in the fuzz ‘Die’ and the funky ‘Girlfriend’. If some subjects are approached with more lightness, it emerges from this album a dark and even tragic tone if we try to follow the lyrics written by the skinned singer Josh Katz. His very porous awareness of the world's moods leads him to morbid and serious themes, from suicide ('Ghost') to animal suffering ('Murder Games'), addiction ('Heroin') and incest ('Daddy').

Considering it for what it is, i.e. without pretending to upset the genre, "Ok, I'm Sick" is a good surprise because it is a successful and melodic album. Moreover, risk-taking can be welcomed because there is always a commitment to express a point of view even if it is sometimes excessive and immature (the politically correct anti-Trump charges of 'Die', the hedonism of 'Girlfriend'). "Ok, I'm Sick" remains the transcription of a sensitivity whose fragilities are touchingly sincere.
- Official website

BADFLOWER

OK, I'M SICK

AUTRE LABEL

ALTERNATIVE ROCK