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| Walhello -> Knowledge Base -> CDs -> B -> Badfinger No Dice |
| Badfinger - No Dice Band: Badfinger Tracks: - I Can't Take It - I Don't Mind - Love Me Do - Midnight Caller - No Matter What - Without You - Blodwyn - Better Days - It Had To Be - Watford John - Believe Me - We're For The Dark - Get Down - Friends Are Hard To Find - Mean Mean Jemima - Loving You - I'll Be The One Essential Album for Power Pop and Rock fans Even if you've never heard of Badfinger, you're probably already a fan of two or three of the AM radio standards included on this thoroughly enjoyable record. Though they began as Beatle protégées, Badfinger quickly developed into power pop innovators whose four-part harmonies and infectious guitar melodies echo in the music of Big Star, The Raspberries, The Shoes, and The Posies among others. No Dice is a great introduction to Badfinger, largely because producer Geoff Emerick was happy to capture the band's Live sound instead of overexerting his own influence on the music as Todd Rundgren, Bill Collins, and even Chris Thomas would sometimes do. As with all of Badfinger's albums, it's the Pete Ham songs that really shine brilliantly, though Tom Evans and even Joey Molland more than rise to the occasion. If you like this album (and I honestly can't imagine who wouldn't) be sure to pick up Wish You Were Here, Straight Up, and the Pete Ham demo compilations 7 Park Avenue and Golder's Green. Classic Badfinger While most critics cite STRAIGHT UP as Badfinger's best album, this is the album I return to time and time again. Though technically their second album, it's the first to feature the classic lineup of Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and new guitarist Joey Molland. Peaking at No. 28 in the US (none of their albums charted in the UK!), it was their highest charting album. "I Can't Take It" - The album kicks off with a straight-ahead Pete Ham rocker. "I Don't Mind" - A lovely Evans-Molland ballad, glorious harmonies. "Love Me Do" - A great rock 'n' roll song, but it didn't do anything to stop The Beatles comparisons when Molland titles his song with the same title as the Fab Four's first single! "Midnight Caller" - A lovely Pete Ham ballad. "No Matter What" - Another Pete Ham song, and the only single released from the album. (Peaked at No. 8.) "Without You" - Co-written by Ham and Evans. Could have been a huge single, and it was...for Harry Nilsson, who also won a Grammy for it. "Blodwyn" - This is one of My Favorite songs, although I have no idea why a Spoon would be "a token of my love." Ham's guitar work gives this song a distinctive country feel. "Better Days" - Another Evans/Molland collaboration. "It Had To Be" - Drummer Mike Gibbins is the underappreciated songwriter of the band. This is a lovely tune. "Watford John" - This little rocker is credited to the entire band. "Believe Me" - A wonderful Evans-penned ballad. "We're For the Dark" - A classic Pete Ham song which closed the original album on a somber note with its acoustic guitar. Best line: "But it's not enough to be/ If you gotta look, then you have to see." Then there are the Five bonus tracks. [The final three were produced for a follow-up album to NO Dice that was never released. "Get Down" - A rocker written by the entire band. "Friends Are Hard To Find" - Another rocker penned by Molland. [Again he references The Beatles with the opening line: "Well, I had to laugh, I saw the photograph."} "Mean Mean Jemima" - Molland contributed this mid-tempo rocker. "Loving You" - Another gem from Gibbins. "I'll Be the One" - A final Band collaboration and easily the best of the bonus tracks. With this album and its follow-up, 1971's STRAIGHT UP, Badfinger were establishing their own identity as a Band and were poised for greatness. Tragically, it never happened. Label changes and bad business decisions and mismanagement saw declining record sales. "Baby Blue" and "Day After Day" from STRAIGHT UP would be their final Top 40 hits. WISH YOU WERE HERE only reached No. 148. By 1975 a despondent Pete Ham took his own life and brought a premature end to one of the most gifted bands of the era. This album s Good Badfinger Back in the early 1970's, when Badfinger was a working band, it was roundly criticized for being, at best, a Beatles "sound alike" and, at worst, a Beatles imitator. "Badfinger recycles familiar riffs and harmonies in far less striking configurations" says The Rolling Stone Album Guide. There was plenty of other circumstantial evidence. Paul Mccartney wrote their first hit, George Harrison produced their third album (STRAIGHT UP), and they were on the Beatles' Apple label. Personally, I don't know the accuracy or fairness of all this. I DO know that it all ended tragically for Badfinger and, particularly so, for some of it bandmembers. But that is all water under the proverbial bridge, now. I also know that this recording, NO DICE, sold pretty well when it was released and I know why. Whether or not these guys were mining Beatles material for their music, the result sounds pretty darn good. It seems to me that if a rock Band is going to look somewhere for inspiration, Beatles music would be a good place to start. The fact is, if you like the kind of music recorded by The Beatles and other pop/rock bands of their era, you'll probably like NO DICE. Badfinger produced a nice sound both vocally and instrumentally, and the original album included twelve very listenable songs. The CD has been augmented by the addition of Five more songs that were previously unreleased. I have my own favorites, but this CD includes nothing but good stuff. There's not a real clinker in the bunch. NO Dice is a very good CD and I recommend it. Get it. You won't regret it. Buy Badfinger No Dice at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
