Album Review: Baddies - Do The Job

Album Review: Baddies - Do The Job
Review by Danny Crombie - November 13, 2009

First some background info. I saw Baddies over two years ago and they had their shit together then - they had only been together months and sounded like indie superstars. Their sound and distinct blue uniforms seemed fresh and exciting and they certainly didn’t fit in playing with the Dwarves.

Roll on 1 ½ years later when I end up on their Myspace page just as they were gaining recognition for "Battleships" and that giftedly fucked-up video was taking over the MTV online chart. Any idiot could see these guys were destined for stardom but for some reason I fell off the radar and fucked off to Australia for 8 months.

Fast-forward, and I’m sitting at Music Vice’s Australian HQ (the library - we might be international these days but we're still as DIY as ya like!) when I get an email through with a preview of Baddies debut album and get offered an interview – wow, they fucking did it! [Look out for the interview in the next week or so I find some sort of internet connection that’s A: good and B: free.]

Since receiving my copy of Do The Job over a week ago it's been on constant rotation. It’s honestly one of purest and most exciting debut’s I’ve heard in a while. I wasn’t surprised to hear how great they were because being the genius I was I could see they were going to be great like The Futureheads’ first record or something like that, there’s also a bit of The Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives in the mix there which isn’t their best record but did feature classics like "A Little More For A Little You" and "Diabolic Scheme".

"It’s as though the Kaiser Chiefs went to jail and came back out with tattoos on their face and a hard heroin habit."

The thing that sets Baddies apart from these two bands is that they have an edge about them, like they actually are baddies who kill people with sharp and angry music with no mercy.

Mike on vocals is Jack Torrance trying to kill his own family in an abandoned hotel, Simon is Travis Bickle – a paranoid, sleepless motherfucker who brings his girlfriend into pornos and murders pimps and brothel owners, Danny is Leatherface – cutting up travellers with a chainsaw and eating them, finally Jim is Scaramanga, a ruthless and calculating hit man with no mercy.

The songs are so good it’s hard to believe how young they are, it’s as though the Kaiser Chiefs went to jail and came back out with tattoos on their face and a hard heroin habit. I’m shaming myself to say that I actually liked a KC’s song, I even bought Never Miss A Beat on vinyl but that’s what these guys remind me of at times.

"Open One Eye" is one of my favourite tracks on the record and the singalong chorus is so infectious you’ll be left with it in your head for the rest of the week. "At the Party" is also a standout tune with a massive chorus and makes you want to shake your hips whilst you kick your fellow dancers in the shins for a laugh. The music is hard and angular and extremely easy to sing along to.

To conclude I think the thing about Baddies is that everybody loves them, I cheer when the good guy dies – this is what we need in our music now – more baddies and less fucking love songs. Joe Strummer once said of love songs “Subjects covered” and he couldn’t be more right - this album is pure and calculated evil and will either make your girlfriend dump you or make her want to touch herself in the toilet in between slagging them off.