Bad English --- Bad English --- 1989 (Epic)
What do you get when you put three Journey members together, add in John Waite and top it off with the bass player from Styx? Well, ostensibly an AOR supergroup, which is how Bad English were touted when they released their self-titled debut as the eighties drew to a close . I personally bought the album (second hand, of course!) purely on the cool, rockin' cover, and was surprised to find once I had got it home that such luminaries were involved. I have to say the super in this supergroup cannot be overstated, and this stands for me as one of the best albums from that period. If you hate Journey, AOR, sweet melodies, hard rocking and great guitar solos coupled with swirling, punching keyboard runs, you're out of luck and you should seek elsewhere, because that's what this album delivers in spades. Every single track (every
single track!) is a classic, and I could not really pick out one that was in any way substandard. Well, okay, maybe just the one. The same therefore has to be said for standouts, because just about every track here is as good as the one that precedes, or follows it.
Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon had of course both been in Journey, Deen Castronovo joining them later, and John Waite and Ricky Philips had been with Cain in The Babys, so everyone knew each other and they got together as friends trying out a project during a hiatus in which Journey effectively split from 1987 to 1994. They scored a number one and number five US hit with singles taken from this album, and the album itself shifted the units, however their second and only other album did not do anywhere as well, and after it Bad English decided to disband, Cain and Schon returning to Journey, Waite to solo work and Phillips back to Styx after a stint with Coverdale/Page. Castronovo, as already mentioned, would join Journey in 2001, having by then worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Vai and Hole, among others.
And just in case you think this is just another Journey offshoot, that with Cain and Schon at the helm it's basically going to sound like a Journey album, don't count on it. I say this a lot, I've noticed, but here it seems particularly appropriate, that the whole of this band is very much more than just the sum of its parts. If you've heard John Waite you'll know he comes across as one of the quintessential AOR voices of the eighties, with just the right mix of power and tenderness, and the ability to turn it on at the drop of a hat. He has that scratchy, somewhat fractured voice you associate with people like Rod Stewart and Bob Seger, though he operates in a different arena to either of those, and he puts heart and emotion and passion into everything he does. The other two members of Bad English I must admit I don't know. I'm not familiar with much of the work of Styx, but anyone who could hold their own with two legends in David Coverdale and Jimmy Page has to be worth his salt, no?
It opens on what sounds like a full brass band, but must surely only be Cain's athletic synthesiser run, as no horns are credited, then a big heavy guitar sound from Schon and the pounding, crashing drums of Deen Castronovo punch in, and we're off to a great start with "Best of what I got", a big, strutting, striding, swaggering (yeah, I know: I love my alliteration!) rocker that just bounces along as Waite takes the mike and completes the quintet. He's no Steve Perry, but I still find myself wondering what it might have been like had he replaced the Journey frontman. Still, after this album he seemed to want to go back to solo work, so I suppose it would not have happened. All the same... Anyway, there's little letup as we power on into "Heaven is a 4 letter word", a big grinding cruncher with a great hook in the chorus and a commanding vocal from John Waite. Most of the material here is written by a combination of Cain, Schon and Waite, with Philips adding to one or two of them.
Things slow down for the first time then for "Possession", the first of five ballads on the album, and it's a powerful, emotional song, with some great guitar work from Neal Schon, and a feature of this band, perfect, spot-on backing vocals that complement John Waite's solo voice and create a really full vocal sound throughout the album. One of the standouts next in the uptempo rocker "Forget me not", which blazes away at top speed and allows Castonovo to let loose on the drumkit, a human drum machine. It's the fastest track on the album so far and also of course features great interplay between the two Journey men (hah!) on keys and guitar, and was in fact the first single released from the album, just barely missing out on the top forty. The next one, however, blew it wide open.
It'll come as no surprise to those who know, or know of her, that Bad English's biggest hit single was written by Diane Warren. Taking the number one spot with ease, "When I see you smile" is a tender ballad built on the tinkling keys of Jonathan Cain's piano, then joined by Neal Schon's powerful guitar, while John Waite sings the lyric with all the lovestruck awe he can put into his voice. Cain manages to make his keyboards sound like a full string orchestra at points in the song, and not to be outdone, Schon rips off a fine solo. This song had hit single written all over it from the word go, and so it proved to be. Oddly, it was not selected as the lead single --- that was, as mentioned, "Forget me not" --- but the second, whereupon it proved a massive hit.
It's the finest of AOR Heaven next with "Tough times don't last", a real sense of mid-period Bon Jovi in the lyric;
"Tough times don't last/ Lovers do/ Baby don't give up/ On me and you." Great keyboard melody laid down by Cain, then an appropriately haunting song in the shape of "Ghost in your heart", which qualifies as a ballad even though it's a little harder than you would normally expect ballads to be. More great keyboard runs and riffs set up by the Journey keyboardist, while another ballad, "Price of love", which follows it, was to give Bad English their second --- and only other --- top ten single. A beautiful, emotionally-charged song based somewhat on the lyrical theme of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a prayer", though nothing like it musically, it's a stirring, effective power ballad that had the guys once again reaching for the top of the charts.
The rest of the album is heavy rock all the way, bar the closer. Castronovo's almost drum solo leads in "Ready when you are", and Schon piles on the riffs in a staccato rhythm in part quite similar to the opener, while "Lay down" is mostly driven on his bandmate's batteries of keyboards. "The restless ones" then opens on a soft, atmospheric keyboard line and a piano melody that starts off quite gentle but gets a little harder as the song develops, and if you thought it was going to be another ballad the guys soon disabuse you of that notion as it kicks into life. It has a great singalong chorus and a real sense of early Bryan Adams before he got all commercial (think "Cuts like a knife" or "You want it, you got it") and rides along on Cain's frothy piano lines. The last hard rocker is the again aptly-titled "Rockin' horse", which hands over control mostly to Schon on the guitar and features a powerful, urgent vocal from Waite, while Cain again sets up an almost orchestral sound on the keyboards.
The closer then is a little light ballad, somewhat out of place really among all these strong songs, and indeed apart from Diane Warren's contribution the only one on which none of the bandmembers have input to. It's co-written by King Crimson legend Peter Sinfield, but is probably the weakest track on the album, which is a pity, as I would have preferred a strong closer to end this extremely strong album. It's a small niggle though, and really there's very little negative I can, or would want to say about this debut album, apart from the fact that it was in the end the highpoint of the career of a supergroup who I would have liked to have heard more from.
TRACKLISTING
1. Best of what I got
2. Heaven is a 4 letter word
3. Possession
4. Forget me not
5. When I see you smile
6. Tough times don't last
7. Ghost in your heart
8. Price of love
9. Ready when you are
10. Lay down
11. The restless ones
12. Rockin' horse
13. Don't walk away