Whitesnake – Good To Be Bad

WHITESNAKE
GOOD TO BE BAD
Released in 2008 (Steamhammer/SPV)
Billboard Chart Position #62

Track List:
01. Best Years
02. Can You Hear The Wind Blow
03. Call On Me
04. All I Want All I Need
05. Good To Be
06. All For Love
07. Summer Rain
08. Lay Down Your Love
09. A Fool In Love
10. Got What You Need
11. ‘Til The End Of Time
Japanese Bonus Tracks:
12. All For Love (Doug Aldrich guitar solo)
13. Summer Rain (acoustic version)
USA/Canada Bonus Disc:
01. Burn-Stormbringer (live)
02. Give Me All Your Love Tonight (live)
03. Walking In The Shadow… (live)
04. The Deeper The Love (live)
05. Ready & Willing (live)
06. Don’t Break My Heart Again (live)
07. Take Me With You (live)
08. Ready To Rock (enhanced video)
European Bonus Disc:
01. Summer Rain (acoustic version)
02. All I Want All I Need (radio edit)
03. Take Me With You (live)
04. The Deeper The Love (live)

Band Members:
David Coverdale – vocals
Doug Aldrich – guitars
Reb Beach – guitars
Uriah Duffy – bass
Chris Frazier – drums
Timothy Drury – keyboards

Production:
Produced, engineered and mixed by David Coverdale, Doug Aldrich and Michael McIntyre.

Review:
Don’t you just love it when a band returns without missing a beat? Whitesnake is one of those bands, being dormant for close to twenty years only to return with a scorcher of an album. David Coverdale and his latest collection of talented cohorts pick up where 1987’s self-titled CD left off. Disregard 1989’s snore-fest Slip Of The Tongue, and Restless Heart (which was essentially a Coverdale solo album), Good To Be Bad is the album that should have followed Whitesnake‘s multi-platinum classic – it’s just a couple decades late is all.

After so many years in the music business one would expect David Coverdale‘s voice to start showing its age, but that isn’t the case at all. He sounds as good today as he did when he shot to fame as a member of Deep Purple in the mid-70s. To compliment his picturesque voice Coverdale has surrounded himself with another star-studded line-up, which includes the guitar duo of Doug Aldrich (who co-wrote the entire album) and Winger‘s Reb Beach. There is no lack of talent in this version of Whitesnake (how many versions is this now?), and no lack of great songs. The Snake is back in a big way!

It takes a couple songs to shake off the cobwebs, but by the time “Call On Me” rolls around the band is firing on all cylinders. There may not be a song as instantly memorable as “Still Of The Night” here, but “Good To Be”, first single “Lay Down Your Love” and “All For Love” come very close. The later especially has that huge stadium sound to it, carried by a great guitar riff. That’s part of the charm of Good To Be Bad, the fact that it is completely drenched with loud guitars cranking out ferocious riffs.

Whitesnake also mix things up with a few ballads such as “Summer Rain” and “‘Til The End Of Time”, which ends this disc in the same fashion as “Sailing Ships” finished Slip Of The Tongue.

Not only is Good To Be Bad an excellent return to form for Whitesnake it is also one of the best albums I’ve come across so far this year. There is still lots of venom in this snake’s bite.

www.whitesnake.com – www.myspace.com/whitesnake – www.spv.de

Reviewed by Skid for Sleaze Roxx, June 2008.

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