Good To Be Bad - Whitesnake Album Review

Whitesnake

Album Review

Hairy rockers return – after a decade. Old hat.

Fronted by one of rock’s greatest singers –David Coverdale, Whitesnake have been knocking around for 31 years. During that time there have been 29 former members including ace drummers Cozy Powell, Ian Paice, and ex-Deep Purple organist John Lord amongst others. One of my claims to fame is meeting ex-guitarist Adrian Vandenberg at a friend’s wedding in Enschede Holland in 2000.

It now consists of ever present founder member David Coverdale (vox) Doug Aldrich (guitars) Reb Beach (guitars) Uriah Duffy (bass) Timothy Drury (keyboards) and Chris Frazier (drums).

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, they release their first album in 10 years which features 11 new songs – eight rockers and three ballads.

For me Whitesnake always delivered the goods with power ballads. Their rockers seemed to fall short of real quality and that still applies now. They failed to hit the spot as much of their work left me cold, though Top 10 singles Is This Love and Here I Go Again (1987) were top class, though as hard as they try, nothing here matches them.

Predictably they deliver an adrenalin rush from the get-go: Best Years is just average rock fodder; thumping riffs and horrible gratuitous solos in attempt to create a new anthem. Dirty guitars keep the momentum going on Can You Hear…, but again it fails to impress. Call On Me has more of a commercial appeal, but again those gratuitous solos are grating – I hate them. Inevitably they’re looking to match past glories (and seeking a new anthem), so All I Want All I Need is probably going to tick the box, though it’s too reminiscent of their 80s efforts. You know its Whitesnake but that’s about it. Sounds like they’re trying to compete with George Thorogood’s blistering Bad To The Bone on Good To Be Bad (they even mention the lyrics) but it’s a pitiful attempt. The classiest moments are heard on soaring rocker All For Love, but guess what? Those solos are back and it’s infuriating. Summer Love is nice enough a ballad, even if it’s forgettable. Its no secret Coverdale had a thing about Led Zeppelin in the 80’s with Lay Down Your Love an undisputable homage to them. Got What You Need is trash rock: unbelievably bad. The best of the lot is ‘Till The End Of Time, a lightweight ballad. To be truthful, after a 10 year hiatus, this bitterly disappointing. Much of Whitesnake’s repertoire was always style over substance, like a poor man’s Led Zep or Deep Purple. Things haven’t changed.

File under: Call it a day lads.

Elly Roberts