I’m sure I have said this many times before, and as long as Bad Mary keeps making music in this vain, then I’m also sure I’m going to keep on saying it, but when it comes to rock and roll, in its broadest sense, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Cliches are cliches for a reason, which is itself a cliche, so it must also be true.
You could argue that rock and roll found its perfect form long ago. If so, all that the band pursuing such a sound has to do is rearrange the various sonic elements into interesting new forms and blend the fresh with the familiar while keeping true to the grooves and moves that made the genre great in the first place. This is what Bad Mary is doing here on their latest EP. It is what they have always done, and they do it brilliantly.
And, given that this collection of songs is a reworking, re-recording, and re-mixing of some of the songs found on their first album Better Days, hence the name, in celebration of its tenth anniversary, the “if it ain’t broke” adage is doubly true. It’s like the musical equivalent of taking a vacation to some of your favourite places; you know what you are going to get, and you know that you are going to love spending time there, but not everything is exactly as you last saw it.
So, Better(er) Days is a half-dozen punky, classic rock and roll sonic salvos—no frills, no unnecessary gimmicks, no major deviations from the party line—just cool, no-nonsense, incendiary, boogie-some, party-starting slices of the sort of music that might not quite change your life* but which will certainly make your year.
In a world where many seem to treat musicians as goods and their songs as some sort of religious text, isn’t it great to come across a band who remembers what it is all about—good times, full-on music, laugh-out-loud moments, memorable experiences, living in the moment, going down swinging with a smile on your face…and a bad hangover in the morning? What more does anyone need?
*Although, it might very well do.
