No Life 'til Metal - CD Gallery

Bad English (Epic) 1989

1. Best of What I Got (4:40)
2. Heaven is a 4 Letter Word (4:45)
3. Possession (5:08)
4. Forget Me Not (4:58)
5. When I See You Smile (4:20)
6. Tough Times Don't Last (4:42)
7. Ghost in Your Heart (4:46)
8. Price of Love (4:47)
9. Ready When You Are (4:20)
10. Lay Down (4:38)
11. The Restless Ones (5:23)
12. Rockin' Horse (5:31)
13. Don't Walk Away (4:29)

Bad English were a "supergroup" comprised of past & present members of Journey (Neal Schon), the Babys (John Waite), or both (Jonathan Cain). As such, I was expecting something akin to Journey; melodic, catchy hard rock. What they delivered is melodic hard rock but doesn't have nearly the personality as Journey. For the most part the music is either lifeless, over-polished, mid-paced AOR or radio ballads. Overall the album sounds like a product of it's times.

The band did score a hit with "When I See You Smile", a sappy, tailor-made-for-radio ballad. "Possession", another ballad, was also a semi-hit for the band. Otherwise, nothing on this album really stands out. Even after several spins of this CD I was still hard pressed to pick out a standout track, though I would suggest that "Best of What I Got" might be the best of the bunch. Another big supergroup from this era, the Damn Yankees, had a similar sound but managed to infuse more of the individual band members personalities into the songs. Not so much here. Bad English isn't a horrid album but it's not what it could have been either.