Bad Baron
Ace of Hearts

Well, how seriously should I take a band calling itself Bad Baron? A band that has one of the most cliché covers I have seen? Is it even possible to take it seriously? The Finnish quartet is nostalgic for the eighties, they dream of a time when movies for the youth were ridiculously stupid with the catchiest of rock music in the soundtracks. They romanticise the decade that really started the capitalistic world we a reaping the benefits from now, and it is the decade when I was born – a truly terrible decade. But it had some excellent music, and great movies – too bad these guys seem to like the worst of the decade.

Nothing, I mean nothing, nothing whatsoever is fresh about this album – it is as generic as they come. It is like they set out to make the least fresh album in history and succeeded really well in that endeavour. The singer could have been an octave or two higher, otherwise it is spot on for the most forgettable and generic stuff you can imagine. This could have been soundtracked in whichever eighties film targeted at a younger audience, or TV-show, why not Miami Vice? Or Karate Kid, or something other silly like that. They make catchy songs, use lots of keys and synths, choired choruses, it is almost like I was forced to take a trip with a DeLorean and ended up some thirty-five years ago.

It is kind of so bad that it is good, it is infectiously catchy, and accessible, it has no depth at all, perfect for the spotify generation who are exactly like that. Did I mention that the lyrics are pathetically bad as well? It is one of those albums where you actually hope that the band just made something goofy for the sake of making something goofy, and that they had no ambition to make something good. If this is a serious attempt of making good music it would be very advisable for this band to call it quits immediately – just quit, change identities and vanish.

So, it is enjoyable for a little while, it is so silly and so bad that I actually enjoy listening to it – but it feels like I am wasting my time and life at the same time, guilty pleasure perhaps. Pair this with a typical monotonous job in a factory or something and you have the perfect reason for suicide as it would be the most meaningless you can achieve in life. How do you get back from that? Still, I can’t help enjoying it, so perhaps it is good. But I really hope that they never release another album, because the world doesn’t need more generic and pointless things.

HHHHHHH