The string finally ran out for
Bad Company with their fourth album,
Burnin' Sky. Their approach was so simple that it almost inevitably became formulaic, and although
Mick Ralphs continued to screech with his sparse guitar leads and
Paul Rodgers continued to present his lust in a soulful voice -- well, one had heard it all before several times by now. A band that begins life declaring "I can't get enough of your love" doesn't really have anywhere to go, and by this, their fourth album,
Bad Company were getting sloppy around the edges, tossing in a '50s pastiche in
"Everything I Need," crooning
"The Happy Wanderer" as if they were on a drunken pub crawl. There were plenty of those patented ominous midtempo rockers, too, of course, but nothing you'd want to add to the set list. Of course, the real reason this was the first of the band's LPs to miss the Top Ten in the U.S. and the U.K. is that last point: only one hit single in the title track. Clearly, it was time to try something new, but after three years of stadium rocking, what
Bad Company wanted to try instead was a vacation; they weren't heard from again for two years. ~ William Ruhlmann
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