Review Summary: After a 20 year break, Baby Animals come back with a matured sound and quite possibly their best album!
Baby Animals are:
Suze DeMarchi - Vocals
Dave Leslie - Guitars
Mick Skelton - Drums
Dario Bortolin - Bass
"THIS IS NOT THE END just made an ARIA Chart debut at #19 - somehow cracking the top twenty this time around feels better than hitting number one all those years ago. when people tell you it can't be done, it can, and you can do it your way. you can't do it alone but you don't have to compromise"-Suze Demarchi via Facebook
Considering Baby Animals released their first album 5 years before I was born, I was only aware of them through my Dad playing their debut album on repeat. My first live experience of them live was when I attended a music festival of old Australian rock bands (including; The Angels, Australian Crawl, Boom Crash Opera, Hoodoo Gurus)
I was immediately blown away, I had only heard their songs on CD, and they were amazing live!
A few weeks later, they released their first single in 20 years, "Email" and of course, I gave it a listen. It was an incredible experience and was so excited that they were going to be releasing a new album after the pretty disappointing "Shaved and Dangerous". I pre ordered the album and gave it a listen. I was pleasantly surprised by the new sound. The lead single "Email" sounded like it was straight from the great debut album, while the second track "Bonfires" was a much more matured rock sound.
The album overall is much more matured, which possibly the best lyrics that Suze has thrown down a mic, being older, they have more stuff to write about, such as Suze's divorce with her husband, which gives us the amazing and beautiful rock ballad "Stitches". No longer do Baby Animals resort to playing loud, fast songs to get people to listen, but instead use song writing skills to write catchy, energetic songs that, while not as hard or powerful as their previous two albums, give us a much more diverse sound that is second to none.
Fret not though, as the album still packs a rock punch, with the AC/DC sounding "Hot Air Balloon" or the fast, energetic "Got It Bad", which is very reminiscent of the heavier previous album. The mid song tempo change in "Invisible Dreamer" gives the impression of an awesome epic rock song and really complements Suze's somehow still powerful vocals
If I were to have one gripe with this album, it would be that the drums are rather low in the mix of this album. Some of the best parts of the debut and "Shaved and Dangerous" are the incredible pounding drums that worked with the melodic bass playing and Dave's blues-influenced guitar playing.
Apart from that, this is my favourite album of the year, it has everything that a good rock album needs, tear inducing ballads, fast rock songs and epic guitar solos.
I can only hope that the band is still touring when I turn old enough to get into pubs and see them live!!
