Badlees bring strong lyrics to the table in 'Up There'

By SCOTT SWINDELLS
Collegian Staff Writer

Simple acoustic guitar rock with a college-radio format is usually not described as diverse.

But the Badlees new release, Up There Down Here, features storytelling song lyrics that are so engaging a listener almost can't help finding something with which to emotionally relate.

And local fans have been able to relate to the Badlees up close, as its touring schedule never neglects the band's Penn State student fan base.

The first band to ever take the stage at The Bryce Jordan Center opening for the Goo Goo Dolls and Rusted Root in January 1996, the Badlees also performed at the seventh annual QWK Rocks the Block Party in August and will perform Wednesday at Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave.

This album's lyric writing is powerful and covers a wide range of emotions, which the band's vocal core of Jeff Feltenberger, Pete Palladino, Bret Alexander and Paul Smith undertakes through appropriate vocal tones that can transform from anger to melancholy to loving in the matter of a few bars.

"Thinking in Ways" deals with the weighty emotional strain of planning one's own funeral such as ordering flowers, purchasing a casket and a burial plot, offering advice for loved ones, and making amends. The chorus lyrics, "I am thinking in ways/that I never thought before/I am counting the days/that I never have before," capture the essence of pre-separation anxiety and a sense of resign to fate through Alexander's soulful vocals.

But Alexander, or any member of the Badlees, is not dying. The band simply grabs hold of its listeners through assuming many strong personas throughout the album's 13 tracks.

And through its arsenal of vocalists, the band can deftly switch personas to match the moods of the lyrics. The first song, "Don't Let Me Hide," has an edgier hard-rock feel, with the vocal combination giving an energetic, Axl Rose-influenced whine over the acoustic, Toad the Wet Sprocket-esque college rock riff.

"Running Up That Hill" also features the Badlees' college-radio format of story-telling rock, featuring the lyrics, "So you drive a while/past streets and neighborhoods and ghosts/of incidents that now define you," urging listeners to, "love all, trust a few."

The lyrics are what keep this album from losing its sense of the new and original, despite the somewhat repetitive song-format that can make each track sound the same.

On this effort, the Badlees are able to overcome the repetition and make it work to the band's benefit, combining with vocal prowess to give the band a style and sound of its own.