4.5/5 stars
Ahh; take a deep breath and suck in the smell of stale beer, man sweat and fetid urinals – pub rock is back and it’s as welcome as an icy stubby to a parched throat in the summertime.
Adelaide’s Bad//Dreems are perfectly placed to provide Aussie rock with a shot in the arm, having put in the hard yards touring at home and overseas and recently soaking the Splendour stage in much of the contents of their rider. The result is that their music is no longer left of the dial, as their songwriting hero Paul Westerberg would say, but easily accessible to anyone with a penchant for heart-on-sleeve rock and wonderfully raw live shows.
An early highlight on their debut album is ‘Bogan Pride’, on which frontman Ben Marwe announces, “Friday night and I’m five pills deep, I can’t think straight,” before questioning the motives of those overly muscular boneheads every festivalgoer loves to hate. Gutsy singles ‘Cuffed & Collared’ and ‘Dumb Ideas’ provide the rockier moments, but the real magic is to be found among the nostalgic ‘Hume’ and ‘Ghost Gums’; moments of sunburnt Australiana which mark this album as a guitar rock classic.
Top-drawer production by the legendary Mark Opitz helps their honest and often bleak Australian worldview come to the fore on an album that will sound just as good at home as it will down the pub. Tip: best served with a refreshing pint of West End.
Dogs At Bay byBad//Dreems is out through Ivy League.
