Customer Reviews

More Bad News

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So named because of the grim nature of the Childe Ballads that the group loves to use, More Bad News was, for me, Broadside's first success in creating an album as a whole. The work takes you on a wonderful path through some very engaging songs. The three added bonus songs "The World Turned Upside Down", "Sugar Trade", and "Magellan" kind of break that flow for me, but they are some of my favorite Broadside songs, so I'm willing to let that go.

One of the real treats of this album is the careful attention to arranging. With Melissa gone from the band, Tom, Jim, and Helene were content to let things peter out. Fortunately, they still had some scheduled gigs to play and had to look to making songs work with just the three of them. Strangely, they really started to like what they were doing, and you can tell that on this album.

Another great addition to the Broadside sound comes with Jim Speer's discovery and use of the Chapman Stick (R), an instrument that allowed him to play both treble and bass simultaneously.

If you own only one Broadside album (and why would own only one!?!), it would be a tough call, but I would eventually suggest this one.

All fans of Celtic folk and Britrock should take note of "More Bad News" ,a superlative effort in the genre by any measure. The bulk of the selections seems to be arrangements of traditional song, unavailable elsewhere in this form. The members deserve kudos for their work bringing this music to light, delivering with accomplished performance and subtle humor. Instrumentally superior to their previous efforts but vocally weaker. Singer Melissa Demian adds a guest showing, but not enough of one to satisfy die-hard Melissa fans like myself. Still, lead vocalist Tom Rhoads delivers well. All in all still an excellent recording and a must have for ballad junkies.