ALBUM REVIEW: Bad Touch – Bittersweet Satisfaction

Always a band who put out a quality record, Bad Touch are in real danger of surpassing their usual high standards with ‘Bittersweet Satisfaction.’ It’s an album that grows in stature with each and every play and surely has to be a late contender for ‘Album of the Year 2023’…

Bad Touch hit 13 this year making them Rock and Roll teenagers, and it’s that abandon that comes with a relaxation of the ‘rules’ and that teenage feeling that you can do anything you like that pervades ‘Bittersweet’. Saying that it’s also a precise and assured record, brimming with energy, with sharp lyrics and some quite sublime guitars which at times eschew excess for economy and sound all the sharper for it. Production on this record too I have to say is impeccable as are the performances of everyone involved.

When you make album number five – a heady mix of clean Norfolk air and the heady strain of the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes, and every Hard Rocking Blues based A-Graders since, you perhaps don’t expect it to be breaking and new chains – nut this does.

Opening with ‘Slip Away’ all big riffs and soaring chorus you’re away and rocking right out of the gates and immediately hit by Stevie Westwood’s vocals and the guitars of Rob Glendinning and Daniel ‘Seeks’ Seekings as well as the formidable drive of Michael Bailey (bass) and George Drewry (drums). It’s a team performance that’s for sure, and this team is firing on all cylinders.

‘This Life’ adds a little more grit and some swelling keys to keep the ball rolling it’s a bluesier take on the Bad Touch sound with another huge chorus that will have you singing along in no time. It’s just a foreshadowing of what is to come, but this is definitely a record that will have you hoarse from singing along before long.

The latest singe ‘Spend My Days’ is of course one most fans will be familiar with and it’s a perfect piece of mid-tempo Pop Rock. It’s another winner.

The title track ‘Bittersweet Satisfaction’ is a glorious mess of everything you love about the band, all colliding in the one track. It’s a huge song that rides a great groove with a killer chorus. It’s magic! And we get all of this before the end of the first half of the record!

The first single from back in July ‘Nothing Wrong With That’ really brings in that southern harmony, underpinned with keys it soothes and cures those ills, with a massive feelgood chorus. It’s a wonderful instant sing-along that soars and is absolutely made to sing along to.

Side two kicks off with the moodier ‘Taste This’ a soulful track that is all about the drums and the dynamic shot of guitars and the funky vocals. For me it’s a real diamond amongst similarly valuable gems! And when that solo bursts in the deal is well and truly sealed.

If you were in doubt that the quality could be maintained then ‘side two’ fares just as well as the opening salvo, with ‘Tonight’ doing a similar job to ‘Spend My Days’ and injecting some sig along Pop into proceedings.

Interestingly after numerous plays 7 songs into a 10 tracks album we are still to get to hear two of my favourite tracks. The first ‘Come Back Again’ just might be my current favourite. It’s a laid back, gentle musing on life, with some great lyrics that had me thinking that immortal Traffic man (almost namesake) Steve Winwood. It’s a truly beautiful song. Absolutely one of my favourite tracks of the year.

And between that wonderful song and the final track that is another huge favourite of mine comes the second single ‘See It To Believe It’ which is a simply great, swaggering, rock and roll party of a song that Bad Touch do so well that seems yet another destined to be played live.

Like ‘side one’ ended with  something uplifting, so does ‘side two’ it’s a neat echo repeating the trick of rounding out with a sing-along.  Closer ‘Dizzy For You’ has that southern sheen and wonderful melodies but is so ‘feel good’ you could have it prescribed. It’s a song that sounds so familiar it instantly connects and caps off what is a simply wonderful album.

What a band! I’ve been on board since catching them with The Answer back in 2015 and to me this is their very best. It’s not often a band 5 albums in can deliver like this. I’m going out on a limb but for me this is Bad Touch’s best so far. You are all in for one huge treat just in time for Christmas! This is one record that needs to be on everyone’s list.