Review Summary: Voodoo Highway should be regarded more as an artistic success, even though it is inferior to the Badlands debut.
Badlands is a band that is synonymous with the word “underrated”, both during the period of its short existence and now. Formed by vocalist Ray Gillen and guitarist
Jake E. Lee (individuals that can also be easily described with the same word), the band released a terrific eponymous debut in 1989. The album was notable for neglecting on the still popular glam metal, but was instead imbued with blues-tinged hard rock, mostly devoid of the typical 1980s studio polish. The LP was moderately successful in terms of sales, so almost exactly 2 years later a new (turning out to be the last) album is released, titled
Voodoo Highway.
In general, the release continues the direction presented on their debut. Despite the popularity of the 80s rock, even though it was dwindling rapidly, Badlands refused to follow the genre standards, going their own way. So absent is the boisterous and hedonistic (a rock ‘n’ roll stereotype that was carried to the point of absurdity at the time) vibe of fun and party, and there are no prerequisite saccharine power ballads about rosy feelings of eternal love, sitting cozily next to the party anthems. However, you can feel a slight move – reluctant or deliberate – towards a softening of the band’s sound.
It seems that while working on
Voodoo Highway Badlands faced certain complications. One of the major stumbling stones was the label pressure to produce hit songs (a situation, which unfortunately happens too often), something that the band naturally tried to resist. Still, that type of environment couldn’t not have left its mark, resulting in strained relations between Lee and Gillen, who were the primary songwriters. This might explain that peculiar fence-straddling feel in the Badlands sound on the album. As such among the powerful rockers we see two softer tracks –
Show Me the Way and
Fire and Rain. Overall, these songs leave a decent impression, since they still lack the excessive sweetness often inherent in their ilk. At the same time, they are not memorable enough to stick in one’s mind, acting more like filler padding the LP running time.
Luckily, almost all of the remaining tracks are in the vein of solid hard rock. Once again, Jake E. Lee confirms his status of an underrated axe slinger, churning out one strong riff after another. However, it should be noted that in no way he tries to steal the show, quite the opposite, he does right with his band members, so that the songs flow with joint effort.
A certain variety is noticeable. The album has straightforward hard rock (
The Last Time,
Shine On,
Love Don’t Mean a Thing,
Heaven’s Train), but there are tracks saturated with country and Southern rock (
Whiskey Dust,
Silver Horses,
Voodoo Highway), and even a funky cut (
3 Day Funk). Also present are two acoustic and ambient songs –
Joe’s Blues,
In a Dream – but, despite their somewhat pleasing nature, due to short length they (actually, it is also valid for the self-titled track) don’t feel necessary for the album, going by like ditties.
Nevertheless,
Voodoo Highway should be regarded more as an artistic success, even though it is inferior to the Badlands debut. However, despite its apparent accomplishments, the album ended up being less successful commercially. And, taking into the account the tensions between the band members, the result was predictable – Gillen quit, the band took a pause at first and ultimately broke up soon afterwards following the death of the vocalist. Lee, in turn, fell from the radar of music aficionados. Still regardless of the sad outcome, one thing should not be denied –
Voodoo Highway (together with its antecedent) is without a doubt an album that deserves more attention from the genre enthusiasts than it’s got so far.
