Consumer Guide Album

Bad Company: Run With the Pack [Swan Song, 1976]
Almost imperceptibly, album by album, they soften their Free-derived formalism--not only does this one include ten (why, that's almost eleven!) different tunes, but the dynamics shift and the tempos accelerate slightly and Paul Rodgers actually sounds a little soulful. Which needless to say is a mixed blessing. It's not just that the lyrics are dumb, although there are smarter ways of being dumb than this, but that Rodgers emotes these egregious hip-and-funky clichés as if he's never run across such sentiments before in his life. Ordinarily, that's what a (soulful) singer should do. This time, though, it adds a false note that endangers the entire illusion. B-