Continuing with the dedicated task of transferring the spirit of Memphis to the heart of Merseyside, Mike Badger has no desire to follow trends or bust a gut trying to win over new fans.
His precious time and energy is devoted instead to the craft of replicating the essence of old school Rock’n’Roll while paying homage to outlaw Country music. All this is mixed and matched with some healthy smatterings of good-time Psychobilly.
Only the first and last tracks exceed the three minute mark and that by only a mere ten seconds. Both these snappy tunes have the word ‘ghost’ in the title (Ghost in This Machine and the title track).The benign group of spectres in question almost certainly include Elvis and Johnny Cash among their ranks.
Rest assured that any concerns Badger may harbour over the traumas of a mid-life crisis have come and gone. The track Growing Older So Gracefully expresses this clearly and wittily. It’s a song about “singing the blues while watching the news” but also expresses a healthily philosophical position vis à vis the ageing process.
Who Am I Now addresses this topic in a more serious manner as he reflects on being ”the shadow of a former self” but the enjoyment expressed in this and other songs illustrate that maudlin self-pity is not high on the agenda.
Certainly,the idea of selling out to become a respectable member of the bourgeoisie is given short shrift with the instruction Shoot Me In The Head“if I ever become one of them”.
Displaying glimpses of a wilder side, Badger goes out on a limb with Beach Buggies On The Moon and Sci-fi Hotrod Messiah. This bizarre pair of one minute freak-outs sound like Johnny Cash set on a collision course with Suicide.
Throughout, Badger is not striving for a polished production so there’s a demo-quality to much of the content. How the Hell Has It Come to This could easily be an outtake from Julian Cope’s Skellington series while the breezy pop of Dark Side of the Mountain harps back to the artist’s time as co-founder of The Las.
Keep 'em Busy is the album’s centrepiece, a swinging At The Bop inspired number with funky sax breaks courtesy of Cian Radcliffe. The splendidly titled Cudda Wudda Shudda is driven by a similar retro-rock mood.
In short, this is a joyful, no frills album which stands as the document of a man devoted to making music for the sheer fun of it.
