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 pop-metal to make the record appealing to teenagers who grew up on power ballads.
And the band does turn in a first-rate 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, big-budget record of the late '80s and early '90s.
It's just as indicative of its era as Bad Company is.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Holy WaterBrian Howe, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 04:06 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 2 | Walk Through Fire | Bad Company | Play | 04:47 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 3 | Stranger StrangerBrian Howe, Simon Kirke, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 04:50 | 11 MB | 31 MB |
| 4 | If You Needed SomebodyBrian Howe, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 04:23 | 10 MB | 27 MB |
| 5 | Fearless | Bad Company | Play | 03:31 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 6 | Lay Your Love on Me | Bad Company | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | Boys Cry ToughBrian Howe, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 05:33 | 12 MB | 35 MB |
| 8 | With You in a HeartbeatBrian Howe, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 04:33 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 9 | I Don't Care | Bad Company | Play | 04:29 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 10 | Never Too Late | Bad Company | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 11 | Dead of the Night | Bad Company | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 12 | I Can't Live Without YouMick Ralphs, Terry Thomas | Bad Company | Play | 03:49 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 13 | 100 MilesSimon Kirke | Bad Company | Play | 01:56 | 4 MB | 12 MB |
| 53 mins | 122 MB | |||||
| 53 mins | 344 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bad Company | Primary Artist |
| 2 | Tina Egan | Vocals (Background) |
| 3 | Tony Harris | Engineer, Producer |
| 4 | Lea Hart | Vocals (Background) |
| 5 | Brian Howe | Composer, Vocals |
| 6 | Simon Kirke | Composer, Drums, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals |
| 7 | Felix Krish | Bass |
| 8 | Derek McCartney | Assistant Engineer |
| 9 | Rafe McKenna | Mixing |
| 10 | Mick Ralphs | Composer, Guitar |
| 11 | Andrew Scarth | Engineer, Producer |
| 12 | Rick Smith | Accordion |
| 13 | Terry Thomas | Composer, Guitar, Mixing, Organ (Hammond), Percussion, Producer, Vocals (Background) |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |