Whitesnake - Good To Be Bad

 

Some things never change, thank the god of rock. Thirty years after forming Whitesnake, David Coverdale – now 56 – is back after a ten-year break to thrust the Big Salami back in our faces. Big balls prevail.

This ‘anniversary’ album is every inch the cockrocker’s handbook, predominantly created by a man undeterred by age and encouraged, no doubt, by the appalling travesty that was The Darkness, whose only good turn to music was to inspire the indignant, mass return of all real metal bands. This, of course, led to guitar rock’s omnipresence in the naughties. No bad thing. It is now hip to like metal.

Some things do change, however. Whitesnake have been through so many line-up changes, each new member might as well have stood on a conveyer-belt for the duration of his career in the shadow of King David. Give or take 30 transient members, there are now five more, proving that there’s an endless supply of aspiring rock stars waiting for the likes of Coverdale to pluck them from obscurity.

But hopefully ex-Lion/Burning Rain guitarist Doug Aldrich, ex-Winger guitarist Reb Beach, bassist Uriah Duffy, keyboardist Timothy Drury and drummer Chris Frazier can rest assured that Coverdale is older and, maybe, just maybe, ready to settle down.

"Somebody help me" are, indeed, the first words he utters on this album, as the phenomenal (obvious set-opener) Best Years thunders into the arena, a tad more Big Log than Big Salami but, nevertheless, a juggernaut of gargantuan proportions that Whitesnake will ensure is their own live… Anyway, you get the feeling that these words are not a plea but an invitation, both in the context of the song and the circumstances surrounding the album.

Graciously teaming up with Doug Aldrich for both the songwriting and production (also with Michael McIntyre) was a move of infinite wisdom. A natural collaboration, Doug’s involvement has turned out an album that pauses only to dust the odd cobweb from Coverdale’s voice, which has a rougher edge on the heavier songs (Best Years, Call On Me, Good To Be Bad and Got What You Need).

The three ballads and one blues number (A Fool In Love) give the old man a little respite before returning to his usual rocktastic posturing. The first downbeat track, All I Want All I Need, is pure filler and an unremarkable ballad, but Summer Rain is more pensive and album closer Til The End Of Time is probably one of Whitesnake’s gentlest ballads, with some gorgeous slide guitar to accompany Coverdale’s surprisingly tender vocals.

Each track on Good To Be Bad is, on average, five minutes long, but this rarely seems excessive. Lay Down Your Love and (the Lizzy/Maiden-esque) All For Love, in particular, have a wealth of dynamics, whilst Got What You Need is a full-on, finger-blistering rocker - so, really, nothing drags (except the aforementioned All I Want All I Need). Added to that Coverdale’s continuing talent for inventing rock clichés and there’s plenty to entertain here.

Okay, he may’ve filched George Thorogood’s ‘Good to be bad, b-b-b-bad to the bone’ and ‘…won’t get fooled again…’ from The Who for the seriously horny A Fool In Love, but they’re such obvious steals, ‘tribute’ would be a more appropriate word. Besides, the grandmaster of the seminal chestnut has plenty of his own (i.e. Lay down your love, lay it on me…’ from Lay Down Your Love, ‘Baby flow like a river to me…’ from All I Want All I Need and – get this – ‘I got a woman, a heart attack, love me so hard baby, love her a stack…’ from A Fool In Love.

Apparently, this could be Whitesnake’s last album. I’d advise Coverdale to think again. In a climate where guitars are playing a more significant part in contemporary music than they have done in 30 years, it would be foolish to bail out now.

8/10

PIPPA LANG

Good To Be Bad is released on SPV/Steamhammer on 21st April 2008

Get Good To Be Bad from Play.com or iTunes

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