Baby Animals are a band that knows quality over quantity. Prior to their reunion in 2007 their discography consisted of two studio albums, their eponymous debut and Shaved & Dangerous, which are now available in a handy 2CD package for the first time.
Both albums contain their fair share of fist-in-the-air rock mixed in with catchy pop melodies.
A big drawcard for this band was always Suze DeMarchi’s powerful rock chick voice which saw her hold her own alongside the Chrissie Hyndes and Chrissy Amphletts of the musical world.
There was also Dave Leslie’s excellent guitar playing that sometimes rocked and occasionally veered off into blues territory while allowing moments for shredding and for quieter flourishes, and their rhythm section were also very tight.
Baby Animals is considered one of the greatest Australian rock albums of all time. It was the highest-selling debut record by a group until Jet released Get Born and it spawned four top 20 singles including “Early Warning”, “Rush You” and “One Word”.
The album wasn’t just about hard rock and gritty guitars, however, as “Make It End” was a soft and overblown power ballad that sounds rather dated.
The group’s follow-up wasn’t as impressive and doesn’t fare much better.
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DeMarchi’s voice was still powerful but the band was pressured by their label to write “hits”. They would enlist the help of Extreme guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt (who DeMarchi would marry and divorce) to help with co-writing duties and play guitars on the unnecessary Free cover, “Be My Friend” .
Suze DeMarchi one said that the Baby Animals were all about raw, rock music and four-on-the-floor, simple fun and never was this more apparent than on their first two offerings.
Baby Animals and Shaved & Dangerous each contain some fast-paced, sweaty rock that was rough-around-the-edges but not so coarse that they couldn’t go and embrace a good pop melody or two.
