If there were ever a band that could be compared to a sponge then it would be Bad Love Experience as they appear to have absorbed all the cool musical influences of the last fifty years and now wring them out into their album “Rainy Days”.
There’s not much that they haven’t used in their songs and, to their credit, they both keep the pace up and keep things interesting. Where many bands drown under the weight of their influences, Bad Love Experience instead show remarkable buoyancy and an almost swaggering confidence. Starting off in “Break Away” with what could be a Beatles guitar riff that metamorphoses into an Oasis pastiche, it rapidly becomes clear that reticence is not going to enter into the musical equation. “21st Century Boy” is cheekily named as it is more retro than anything else and “Somebody Born To Walk” is so American that it is hard to believe that this is actually an Italian band. As if to show mastery of yet another sub genre or two, big drums and echoing guitar drive “Walking On My Feet” along into cod reggae territory. Ending the album – and by this time it seems curiously appropriate in its camp way– is an odd sixties cool meets seventies singer songwriter sounding “All The Heroes, Unfamous People”.
There is a lot to like here and I enjoyed figuring out where Bad Love Experience were borrowing their musical ideas from. That’s not a criticism, by the way, as the end result is never less than enjoyable and it served as a reminder of the simple pleasure that music can bring.
Available on vinyl from Tannen Records and on CD from Inconsapevole/Mabel Records.