It’s almost hard to keep up with the amount of solid music that the UK is producing lately, and the high quality new releases keep coming thick and fast. The latest to join that current list is Leeds based band Bad Ideas, who have been steadily making a name for themselves over the last few years and are now back with their new EP ‘The Better Parts Of You’.
Previously Bad Ideas has primarily been the project of singer and guitarist Sam Cook, however this time around it was a more collaborative effort between the four members of the band who have been joining Cook for live shows. This has brought a more accomplished sound to Bad Ideas, allowing more ideas and interesting arrangements to be thrown in to the mix. The opener of ‘I Prefer You Way Beyond Inebriated’ is a handsome slice of indie-rock with a Joyce Manor style swagger to it as it breaks down into some really nice sections of bending guitar work. ‘Clumsy Hands’ follows a similar formula and has a very refreshingly British sound about it, which is nice given that it is so easy for many bands to fall in the trap of sounding like our transatlantic cousins. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, but it adds to certain honesty to the music hearing a British indie influence shine through.
‘Birds Head South’ shifts the pace up a gear and shimmers along with it’s quiet-loud dynamic that is carried by the note perfect vocal melody. It is moments like this where the dynamic of the band has been changed for the better with all four members composing the songs, giving Sam Cook breathing room to perfect the vocal hooks which are some of the catchiest the band has written. The EP clocks in at little over 15 minutes in length as you reach the closer of ‘Kathleen’s Advice’ that brings back memories of mid-nineties britpop in the vein of Teenage Fanclub’s 1995 album ‘Grand Prix’.
What sets this EP apart from a lot of bands that could easily do a similar style is the quality of the recording. It was recorded to 2-inch tape in analog at Greenmount Studios (Pulled Apart By Horses, Brawlers), which in the absence of any digital trickery has removed any crisp overproduction and allowed for a rich, warm sound that only an analog recording can bring. ‘The Better Parts Of You’ has seemingly shown the beginning of a new chapter in Bad Ideas book, and as they are now part of the ever expanding roster at Paper + Plastick, they are surely only going to expand on this fantastic EP from here on out.
GLEN BUSHELL