Bad Books
III
Release Date: Jun 21, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock
Record label: Loma Vista
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Album Review: III by Bad Books
Great, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
For their first record in seven years, Bad Books made sure it was worth the wait, and not a side project worth forgetting. Helmed by singer-songwriters Kevin Devine and Andy Hull (of Manchester Orchestra), III brings their talents together and distils them into an album that's all of a piece while preserving each writer's own identity. In the realm of Frightened Rabbit and Volcano Choir, Bad Books offer a sometimes exuberant, sometimes sombre sound that takes simple folk songs and blows them out with dramatic piano chords, churchlike ….
Based on rating 7.4/10
Both Kevin Devine, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, and Andy Hull, frontman of Atlanta band Manchester Orchestra and sole member of Right Away, Great Captain!, have been around longer, sold more records, and played bigger venues than their collaborative side project, Bad Books. In 2010, the longtime friends (and the rest of Manchester Orchestra) partnered up to workshop one another's ideas under a new moniker. Instead, they wound up writing material that sounded like reworkings of their respective catalogs: alt-leaning indie folk, deceptively mopey rock, and heartstring-tugging acoustic songs.
Opinion: Very Good
After a seven-year gap and many individual releases, Manchester Orchestra's Andy Hull and Robert McDowell and prolific singer/songwriter Kevin Devine have finally released Bad Books' III. While less experimental than its predecessor, III offers another ten tracks from two excellent songwriters. III has more in common with Bad Books' self-titled debut.
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