Bad//Dreems Badlands (Mirador Records)

3:06 Hoping For

Release Date: 19 July 2013

- Bad//Dreems are a young four-piece from Adelaide. They play smart, gritty indie rock in the format of The Replacements and have just released a new six-track EP entitled Badlands through Adelaide’s Mirador Records.

According to Mirador, Badlands is a concept album dedicated to the band’s ever-confounding hometown. The jangly opener Chills locates the band immediately in the dry, hot suburbs of the city’s north, hoping for winter while wringing yet more sun from a tired lead line and dirge-like Flying Nun vocals.

Second up is Hoping For, a brighter, faster pop song that injects a modicum of hope into the strangely blank escapism of Chills. This more emotional jangler comes off like a cross-section of the band’s influences, showcasing Twerps guitars, a Brendan Huntley spoken word interlude and one of the biggest choruses on an EP full of big choruses.

Despite the band’s impressive knowledge of the flourishing Australian underground, Badlands does not necessarily fit neatly into, say, either the Chapter Music or R.I.P. Society mould. For a start, there is something very big about Bad//Dreems, an aura of tough self-confidence that is largely absent from current Australian independent music, which tends to be fragile even when it roars. Take, for instance, Royal Headache or Witch Hats.

These bands’ gentle hearts don’t seem to belong to Bad//Dreems, especially once Badlands takes a heavy turn halfway through. With its huge drums and screamed vocals, grungey third track Home Life most strongly invokes Cloud Nothings. What makes the latest Cloud Nothings record work is Steve Albini’s masterful production; unfortunately, without such an organic approach here, Home Life sounds a little claustrophobic.

It also has an intensity that is hard to wash from your mouth. Home Life is followed by earnest single Caroline, which locates what would otherwise be a pretty, fey pop song in a bold ‘90s slacker rock format. The chorus is as melodic as early Weezer but also just as obvious.

Caroline is followed by the brutal Tomorrow Mountain, which slows down the grunge attack of Home Life but otherwise remains similar. The emotive refrain ‘I’m bored, I’m lonely, I’m scared’ is repeated ad infinitum in an impressively harsh Violent Soho vocal that comprehensively condemns the angst of teen life in Adelaide.

Before the listener has time to contemplate what has just happened in the last three tracks, however, the EP lurches into closer Too Old, a sweet track that returns to the jangle-pop of Chills yet feels a little lost after the preceding scuzz.

And with that, we abruptly reach the end. Ultimately, Badlands is an impressive achievement and an enjoyable, catchy listen. The only problem is that two very different bands are showcased on this EP, one brash, one gentle. I haven’t seen Bad//Dreems live but, from what I have heard here, I am confident that they are more than sufficiently skilled to resolve this tension.

- Henry Reese.