CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
BAD COMPANY: "Run With the Pack" (Swan Song):: This rocks better than anything these guys or Free ever made — the dynamics shift nicely, the tempos have picked up, and the album includes 10 (why, that's almost 11!) different tunes. What's more, Paul Rodgers is singing like a virtuoso, which in a way is the problem.
CHRISTGNU CONSUMER GUIDE
BAD COMPANY: "Run With the Pack" (Swan Song):: This rocks better than anything these guys or Free ever made — the dynamics shift nicely, the tempos have picked up, and the album includes 10 (why, that's almost 11!) different tunes. What's more, Paul Rodgers is singing like a virtuoso, which in a way is the problem. It's not that the lyrics are dumb, although there are smarter ways of being dumb than this (cf. Slade, or Free's "All Right Now"), but that Rodgers emotes these egregious hip-and-funky cliches as if he's never run across such sentiments before in his life. Ordinarily, that's what a singer should do. This time, though, it adds a false note that endangers the entire artifice. B.
