Maybe I’m the only one who finds it ironic that Desolation Angels, Bad Company’s fifth studio album and the one that brought them attention with the radio hit “Rock And Roll Fantasy,” is the disc where the creative wheels came off the train.
In reality, the members of the band had little left to prove. They had pooled their talents after time with bands like Free, Mott The Hoople and King Crimson. They had proven they had the power to write great music with such songs as “Can’t Get Enough,” “Shooting Star” and “Run With The Pack”. And while “Rock And Roll Fantasy” seemed like it was everywhere on the radio in 1979, it only peaked at number 13 on the Billboard charts; two previous singles had been in the top 10.
So, if Paul Rodgers and crew sound tired and listless on this one… well, I don’t have insight into what was going on in the band at that time, but that’s the same feeling I get hearing it. Only two tracks really get my blood pumping with this one; a typical Bad Company album had at least four songs at that level prior to this one.
The other “well known” song on this one, “Gone, Gone, Gone,” didn’t make it into the top 50 on the singles charts – but I’d dare to suggest it had a little more going for it than “Rock And Roll Fantasy” did. It’s a little dirtier in the groove factor, and while it didn’t hit all the targets necessarily for pop rock success, it required the listener to actually put some brain cells behind it to really appreciate the song for what it was. Look, I like “Rock And Roll Fantasy”… but this one just grabs my attention a little bit more.
If only the rest of Desolation Angels had that kind of power. For the most part, the remaining eight songs feel like Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, bassist Boz Burrell and drummer Simon Kirke were simply rehashing melodies from their previous albums, and hoping listeners didn’t know the difference. Unfortunately, tracks like “Take The Time,” “Evil Wind” and “She Brings Me Love” all have that feeling that we’ve been there once before, and the return trip isn’t nearly as enjoyable.
So what happened? I’d like to write this off to the strain of putting out a new album every year (while some bands were cranking out two annually in the ’70s), but the fact is it had been two years since the tentative Burnin’ Sky had been released. Maybe – just maybe – they were realizing that the creative juices that drove the band were nearly depleted. (This wouldn’t stop them from releasing Rough Diamonds in 1982, which put the nail in the coffin for the original Bad Company lineup for over a decade.)
Desolation Angels is the musical equivalent of watching the scene leading up to a car crash unfold before your eyes, and the disc ends before the actual carnage takes place. Even the exciting moments on this one are unable to propel the disc into being worthy of one’s time. If anything, this one at least gave us time to avert our eyes before the worst could occur.
