‘Kiss The Sky’ is unbelievably the fourth album from Norfolk rockers Bad Touch. Why do I say unbelievably? Because I can’t believe these guys aren’t bigger than their current fanbase suggests. Maybe this album will do it for them… it’s a damn shame there’s a world wide pandemic and lockdown of all live music to go with the release, but at least it will stick in the memory when it ends up with tracks playing on ‘The Planet Rock Years’ in years to come, because that’s where it’s going to go…
From the opening riff of ‘Come A Little Closer’, it is obvious where these guys lay their hats: good old fashioned R’n’R. With elements of a Faces sound in the vocals and guitars and some great hooks and riffs this is going to be a propeller of an album – it’s gonna propel them upwards to ‘Kiss The Sky’. Damn shame they’ve had to delay the launch tour as well as other events they had planned.
‘Let Go’ reminds me of some of the tracks in ‘The Full Monty’ (and could easily be mistaken for one). I can see them all stood in the dole office practicing their moves – now, get that image out of your head!
The first single from the album, ‘Strut!’ starts off with a mix of distorted AC/DC sounding guitar riff countered with a clean guitar rhythm and a ‘Bad Touch’ of Black Stone Cherry/Skynyrd and gospel backing vocals. It is definitely going to get people up to move. There is a cover of Kiki Dee’s ‘I Got The Music In Me’, that is a fair version without too much variance from the original’ but I wouldn’t have recognised it from the opening riff if it was played as “what’s this intro from?”.
‘Can You Save Me’ has a nice catchy riff that runs throughout the track and it reminds me of something on the edge of consciousness that I can’t quite name. However, that aside, it’s a good track that will go down well live I’m sure. The title track ‘Kiss The Sky’ has an underlying groove that carries the track really well with the rhythm section of Micheal Bailey (bass), George Drewry (drums) and Daniel Seekings (rhythm) rocking it along nicely to the breakdown and solo by Rob Glendinning that is pure joy. Its gonna catch some DJs out though with its dead stop ending!
A personal tribute to the father of one of the band is a poignant laid bare in latest single ‘See You Again’; this will resonate with anyone who has lost someone important to them and I can see the phones lit up from back to front when it gets played live-because it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO BE DONE. Then BAM! ‘Before I Die’ is an upbeat, in yer chops rock track with some serious funk (and fun) in it: I guess you could say they’ve put the FUN in FUNK.
‘Read All About It’ has gone back to that Faces guitar feel with a subtle criticism of the current paparazzi culture of finding everyone’s low point and then laying it bare for everyone to sell “news”, but not until everyone knows who they are in efforts to watch them fall and their ability to rise above it. ‘Too Much Of A Good Thing’ has a great Suvrn Rawk feel to the guitar work of Glendinning and Seekings, all supported by more Gospel backing vocals.
‘Sun And The Moon’ is the “final” track on the album (‘Something About Your Kiss’ is a bonus on the CD version). This is another upbeat track on the whole, but the important message is left to Stevie Westwood to deliver over stripped back instrumentation in the second chorus before it builds to a crescendo and a nice keyboard solo. The bonus track, ‘Something About Your Kiss’ for me is the star on the album and should have been included over the Kiki Dee track; I can see why the PR material says its based on tracks like ‘Seagull’ (Bad Company) and has a haunting Fleetwood Mac feel to it, because it really does and then the instruments build to a killer guitar solo. It should never have been left off the album – no way: the bonus track should’ve been the Kiki Dee cover.
Altogether, ‘KTS’ is a really good rock ‘n’ roll album with many different influences shown. Hopefully, we’ll get to see some of them live in the autumn – if the live music scene is still alive by then!
- ‘Kiss The Sky’ is released on 19 June. You can get your copy, and other Bad Touch goodies, HERE.
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