“I got what you’re looking for”
Those six words, right before the guitar solo in the title track, see all the intent of the record burst forth.
It’s Bad Touch emerging in the post-pandemic world, blinking into the light. Ready to reclaim what should have been theirs all along.
They were the boys most likely a decade back or so. They looked like rock stars and they were armed with a song better than any of their contemporaries (it’s called “99%” and it’s the finest rock n roll single of the last few years) but hell, even if you Google their name you get that Bloodhound Gang shite first.
Album number five, perhaps more than any of their others, exists in the margins. Like its title, which suggests there’s happiness at a cost, it’s a more grown-up, world-weary, and maybe slightly heavier collection than you’ve seen from them before.
When “Slip Away”, the opener hits, it does so maybe with the hint of a more strident groove than there’s been in the past, less blues rock, even a touch of Cream.
Whatever, it sets the tone for what’s to come. As there’s a different feel to this than there has been before.
Don’t worry, though, if you liked Bad Touch before, there’s more than enough in this to get your teeth into. The brilliant “This Life” for example, drenched as it is in Hammond Organ, is magnificent.
There’s a line in that one, though that underlines where “Bittersweet Satisfaction” comes from as a whole. “We should be building Bridges, not building up walls, and this is a record that seems to concern itself with well-being, both of individuals and the collective. Forget “them” it seems to say, we’ve got each other, for all our faults.
They’ve always had the gift of writing songs that sound like they should be hit singles. “Spend My Days” is the sort of thing you wish Bon Jovi would do instead of boring everyone senseless, and it’s not the only one you imagine would sound brilliant belting out in a festival field.
Indeed, there’s an anthem right in the middle that is made for playing live, but also which stands as the shining gem on “…..Satisfaction”. “Nothing Wrong With That” is an absolute beauty. It sums up Bad Touch in 2023. “I don’t reckon we can fix the world,” sings Stevie Westwood. “And if we can it’s gonna take a while, so why don’t we just sing a song to make the whole world smile?”
And, like they say, there ain’t nothing wrong with that.
As a wider point, there’s nothing wrong with this record at all. There’s a massive sound, a confidence, it’s all over the lust-fuelled “Taste This” for sure, and there’s a polish about the likes of “Tonight” and the ballad “Come Back Again”, which injects some Muscle Shoals soul into the mix. It suits them too.
10 songs. Slightly less than 35 minutes. This is about quality and not quantity. “See It To Believe It” is – if you’ll pardon the cliché – trademark Bad Touch, try and get the chorus out of your head, I dare you, while “Dizzy For You” is a simple Southern-tinged love song. It sounds great. They all sound great.
On the press stuff for this guitarist Daniel Seekings says: “We’re a good time rock n roll band”. They are, but that almost is too simplistic. They’re an experienced one now too and one who has mastered their craft.
Rating 9/10
REVIEW: BAD TOUCH – BITTERSWEET SATISFACTION (2023)
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