Badbadnotgood Talk Memory
Music, Sounds

BADBADNOTGOOD Talk Memory: REVIEW

by Darcy MacDonald

“Talk Memory expresses itself with the drama and purpose of a great film score, leaving it to the listener to imagine the story arc to our own audio experience.”

BADBADNOTGOOD, Talk Memory (XL Recordings/Innovative Leisure)

BADBADNOTGOOD are back after five years for a fifth full-length outing that finds the Toronto group pursuing their own dialect of miscellaneous influence spoken in the “jazz language,” as drummer Alex Sowinski puts it. Talk Memory expresses itself with the drama and purpose of a great film score, leaving it to the listener to imagine the story arc to our own audio experience. At times sprawling and chaotic, at other moments sparse and pensive, it’s perhaps best described as a beautiful collection of broken ideas pieced back together with kinetic instinct. Brazilian bossa nova legend Arthur Verocai features prominently on several songs, along with guests Karriem Riggins and Terrace Martin. BadBadNotGood will never be mistaken for easy listening, but this may be their most accessible offering yet. 8/10 Trial Track: “City of Mirrors” ft. Arthur Verocai

BADBADNOTGOOD, Talk Memory: REVIEW

This review originally appeared in the October issue of Cult MTL. 

BadBadNotGood perform in Montreal at MTelus on Friday, Dec. 17. For more, please visit their website.

For more music coverage, please visit the Music section.

Posted in Music, Sounds

by Darcy MacDonald

Contributor
Darcy MacDonald has been with Cult MTL since day one, a decade ago. Which means today, he’s a middle-aged white guy (albeit one more interested in other people’s ideas than in his own). He was previously a columnist and reporter for Montreal Mirror, and has also created content (FKA “written”) for RBMA, Noisey, Montreal Gazette, The National Post and probably some other great places he’s forgotten about. Music, culture, community and miscellaneous questions in search of answers all come across his desk, sooner or later.