Between 1980 and 1986, Slash Records assembled a talented roster of acts that included, at one time X, the Blasters, Los Lobos and the BoDeans. With its acquisition of reissue rights for Slash’s catalog, Rhino has begun tapping into the impressive body of work compiled by these artists.
The Best Of BoDeans: Slash And Burn marks the first domestic anthology of the Wisconsin-based roots-rock band. It’s a straightforward reissue, its seventeen tracks drawn from six studio albums and one live record released between 1986 and 1996. (Consumer note: The CD booklet comes with an essay on the band by Nick Johnstone, but the pages are out of sequence.)
Led by singer-songwriters Kurt Neumann and Sammy Llanas, the BoDeans fused vocal harmonies with guitar-driven rock for a dynamic sound that was immediately identifiable. “She’s A Runaway” and “Fadeaway”, from their debut album Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, burn with an edginess and terseness that stay in the mind.
In concert, the band could go from amorous to clamorous, shifting from the intimacy of “Naked” to a rousing, wake-the-neighbors version of “Feed The Fire”, paying tribute to Van Morrison & Them on the latter by including a few lines from “Gloria”.
The BoDeans’ best-known song probably is “Closer To Free”, a song from 1993 that was later used as the theme for the “Party Of Five” television series. That weekly exposure made the song a Top 20 hit in 1996. Lyrically simple with a driving guitar, “Closer To Free” introduced the band to a new generation.
