Forgotten Gems : BAD HABITS by Colin James

In 1990 James had a huge hit with his slightly blues inspired, but largely AOR, album Sudden Stop, which included several radio hits. At this point in time his style was most closely related to Bryan Adams, but with a slightly groovier and bluesier touch. No wonder, they are both from Canada.

In 1993 he released an album that was swing jazz oriented, with a light rock touch. This was rather less successful than the monster hit that came before, and the mainstream touch more or less lost I think. Bad Habits was then a sort comeback to the Sudden Stop vain, but combining the two previous outputs and molding the songs into a more deeply rooted bluesy feel and i guess, a more mature expression. It does have its share of melancholic and moody tracks, but it is not quite as dark as the cover design might indicate, there is a general positive feel.

This worked very well, and at the same time he is able to draw upon a lot of strings both in singing style, tempos and musical styles, probably since he did not feel particularly attached to any. His flirt with the "jazz" scene may also have brought him into contact with the right session musicians, production people and so on. Everything seems to gel on this here album. The funny thing is, neither the old poprock fans nor the jazz folks seem to have fallen for this one, even if he did receive a fair share of prizes for it. It is sadly overlooked.

The first and usually most important aspect is that all the tracks are good, no misses here. The diversity rages from rather uptempo, oldschool hard hitting blues, to ballady, laidback and moody songs, with great guitar work. He draws upon some really classy musicians and guest support, Lenny Kravitz and others. It is a very solid and homogenous album.

It is not pure blues since he keeps his rocking feeling and phrazing, to some extend, but still the overall expression is bluesy, spiced up with other genres. Now I have not heard all of his output and none after this effort, but would not hezitate calling this his best album. It is polished, yes.. it is rather pop oriented, yes... but it is one of the best background music albums you can lay your hands on. Nobody could possibly not like it, since blues is really the basis of all modern music post 1905 and everyone could find something to relate to.