The BoDeans: Outside Looking In (Slash/Warner - 1987)


I've never understood why the BoDeans never made a bigger splash than they did. Treading a well-worn path between honest, blue-collar rock and Arizona-flavoured folk-country, they always managed to hang on to something authentic in the music.


Outside Looking In came on the back of the success of "She's a Runaway", off their first album, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams. "Runaway" probably raised label expectations, and Jerry Harrison was brought in to produce most of the album. The BoDeans release two biggish singles off the album, the mildly anthemic "Dreams", and party-driving "It's Only Love".


The fact is, a lot of Outside Looking In sounds a lot like "Runaway". There's a tantalising urgency to the set, even on the the quieter tracks like "Pick Up the Pieces" and "Someday". In fact, the only time the band sounds like they've grabbed a couple of beers and put their feet up in on the last track, "I'm In Trouble Again", which core band members and songwriters, Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas produced themselves. But for all the urgency of the music and the earnestness of the lyrics, Outside Looking In never pretends to be more than it is, it never tips over into didactic preachiness or heartfelt advice for the lovelorn. It's always, always just about the song.


Which brings me to what I love about the album; whatever they're singing about, whatever new heartbreak they're committing to prostarity, they sound so darn happy just to be there - making music, feeling the guitar strings under their fingers and making a joyful noise just for the hell of it. And why the hell not.