Bad Company - Holy Water (CA)

All Music Guide

Bad Company's last platinum album, Holy Water is a formulaic yet reasonably engaging collection of AOR hard rock. Although the only original members on Holy Water are guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke, the band does a fair job of approximating the sound of classic Bad Company while adding enough elements of '80s popmetal to make the record appealing to teenagers who grew up on power ballads. And the band does turn in a firstrate power ballad with "If You Needed Somebody," which rose all the way to number 16 on the singles chart. Surprisingly, that was one of three hits from the album "Holy Water" and "Walk Through Fire" also received a fair amount of airplay. What that success signals is not a creative rebirth for Bad Company, but that the group knew how to follow a formula very well. Holy Water hasn't aged as well as their original hit albums instead of the clean, ballsy attack of Bad Company and Straight Shooter, it's awash in echo and synths but it is a finely crafted..., bigbudget record of the late '80s and early '90s. It's just as indicative of its era as Bad Company is. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Read more Less