Baddies - Do The Job Album Review

Review of Baddies album Do The Job.

We are in the realms of the post-modern, and pastiche is not a dirty word. Art imitates life and guilty pleasures are still pleasures, after all.

And with it's with this in mind that I consider Baddies new offering, 'Do the Job.' Because, plainly put, its style is heavily borrowed from other places. Opener, 'Tiffany... I'm sorry' sounds like a forgotten Hives b-side. This isn't surprising looking at their matching uniforms and skinny ties: Baddies' have the look of boys who wouldn't take this as an insult. As it goes, 'Tiffany... I'm sorry' is a pretty slick 3 minute stomp through art-pop territory. It has more hooks than a strip of Velcro and enough energy to make your ears prick up with interest. So far, so good.

Likewise, second track 'Open One Eye' bursts out of the trap with menace and razor-sharp three part harmonies. But it's a little less catchy than the song preceding it and that is the predicament that 'Do The Job' arrives at, unfortunately a little prematurely to push it above the average. Their best offerings- 'Battleships,' 'Pisces'- are crammed up at the beginning of the album, leaving the rest of it thin on the ground. I get the impression that their live shows would be tearaway but they lack enough of their own volition to transcribe this into a full record. Like 'We Beat Our Chests,' one of the more embarrassing parodies. At their best, Baddies have some of the darkness of 80s Matchbox and the agitating guitar of The Hives, but at their worst just chug through it all like a Rakes covers band. Not completely awful, but not world beating either.

Natalie Kaye