Better(er) Days – Bad Mary (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Too many people, certainly the listeners and recipients of music, seem to get the idea that songs have a logical finishing line, as if the moment that a band records a track, that is the definitive version of the song, something set in stone. But this is to ignore decades of the rich heritage of blues and, jazz, and folk, where songs are passed between artists and evolve along numerous lines, often simultaneously. It also ignores the fact that the live version of a song, even by the band who wrote it and first recorded it, is often vastly different from the version laid down in wax/disc/digital form.

With this in mind, why shouldn’t a band revisit their own songs and add a bit of polish to these earlier works? Why shouldn’t they write new chapters to their own songs story? In fact, I’m surprised more bands don’t do it. Better(er) Days, as the name implies, sees Bad Mary rerecording and remixing songs from their first album, now a decade old, Better Days.

In their punky, accessible rock and roll style, they kick out the jams and open proceedings with Losing Control, a punchy, staccato riff-a-rama of joyous energy. The title track is a slinky groover full of bass buoyancy and raw, grating guitar attacks, and Forget About It takes the attitude of Joan Jet in her heyday and the belligerence of first-wave punk, a heady and harmonious blend from back when pop infectiousness was just as much a part of the punk package as rock and roll drive.

This six-song salvo is everything you need to restore your faith in rock and roll. Given the number of sub-genres and new styles, fads, and fashions that rock music has been subjected to in the last few decades, it is great to know that some out there are still keeping the faith and holding on to everything that was, is, and always will be great about the rock and roll sound.