Bad Company

Bad Company may have had bigger hits, but opener "Burnin' Sky" is arguably Paul Rodgers' best moment since "Fire and Water," from his days with Free. While this, the band's fourth album, was something of a disappointment commercially, it does find Rodgers and his cohorts taking some risks. While a pop song on the order of "Morning Sun" is not all that far from what the band had always done, the playful psyche-folk of "Knapsack" reveals a side of the band they had always kept from the public, specifically that they were willing to joke around once in a while.

Although Burnin' Sky is firmly slotted into the comfortable menace of Anglo blues-rock
growl, some credit is due Bad Company for loosening up sufficiently to nudge the limits of
hard-rock convention. While it's less than a break-through in terms of songwriting or
musicianship, Burnin' Sky does sport a crisp, streamlined sound and a noticeable softening
of the band's synthetic macho posing. The title track lays down all of the comfor... More >