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Wonderful Listen ! Apr 17, 2007
This is the best B.A.D. record. Wonderfully melodic and focused. Songs segue
sweetly in a sensible manner with great production touches. Rewind kicks things off with a rush and the warmth of Everybody Needs a Holiday and London Bridge at the end, awesome. A great flow, excellent road album. This is easily the most cohesive record the group made.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Let's Be Real Feb 21, 2007
As I read these many reviews I feel compelled to correct some of the errors posted. Mick Jones did not almost die from a motorcycle accident. He contracted chicken pox (he never got them as a child) from his daughter and it spread to his lungs. It became a nearly fatal form of pneumonia. There were times when it was almost certain he would die. When he recovered from this illness the original BAD lineup wrote and recorded Megatop as their last record together. The rest of the band left him, he did not fire them. Just as he had been fired from The Clash.
Having said that, I am one of the biggest BAD fans I have ever met and I think that Megatop Phoenix is an interesting album. At the time the all digital production (DDD) was new and exciting. It sounded big and clean. Not only that but the sampling and instrumentation was in top form for this album. There was so much going on in and between the songs which made it quite a listen! However, time has not done this album well. The slick, digital production now sounds thin and hollow. And the weakness of the album (the songwriting) is more evident than ever now that the acid-house scene is not en vogue and recording techniques have evolved so much.
I have always thought that Mick should have hired a real hip hop producer to make his records. Sort of like what happened with the Rick Rubin remixes on Def Jam of BAD and Bottom Line. This way he could focus on what he does best. Mick Jones best qualities are his song writing and willingness to mix musical styles. That's what he did in The Clash and the first 3 BAD records. Even though some of the production isn't as strong on the earlier BAD records the song writing is better by far.
If you are new to BAD I would not recommend starting with this album because of the dated production and lack of any real good songs. I would start with This Is Big Audio Dynamite as an introduction and highly recommend #10 Upping Street as it represents the best songwriting of any of the BAD albums (it was co-written and co-produced by Joe Strummer) However, if you are looking to hear something new from the band it is worth a spin for it's dancability, sampling and production values.
Good, Inconsistent Feb 16, 2007
There was a time when I spun this over and over. But after giving it a rest for a good 12 years I put it on the other day. There a definitely some great tracks - Rewind, Contact, Union Jack, Stalag 123. But the production doesn't wear well. In this day, the sounds and style are watered-down house. The song-writing, on the better tracks, is pretty good and while I wouldn't call the other songs filler, they aren't as strong. It's all pretty catchy, but I find I like humming the melodies with the CD off better than listening to the cheese.
The other BAD CDs sound a bit more timeless for some reason, perhaps that they didn't push the production aspect so hard and sound more like a band. Overall, a good album to have but maybe not a first. 'This is BAD' is a great place to start and I don't like 'Tighten Up' at all so this pretty much falls in the middle.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Housey Rhythms Enter Planet B.A.D. Jan 19, 2007
B.A.D. was never my favourite band. Their sound seemed like a strained compromise that attempted to reconcile in-vogue synthesized rhythms, sampling and poor lyrics. Their work was neither cohesive nor catchy. I simply didn't think their work held up as consistent and timeless bodies of work.
Megatop Phoenix illustrate how the B.A.D. machine could apty absorb contemporary musical developments and assimilate them into the whole. Samples abound, as do Mick Jones' clumsy lyrics. For the most part, the house-influenced rhythms are proto-drum-and-bass. Not too bad, but it still makes for a skittering experience which can test one's nerves. And the songs aren't really songs, but rather, act as suggestive rhythmic snippets. When you listen to the entire album, these "tracks" weave themselves into a collective experience. Alone, however, the songs are frustrating because they lack a certain pizzaz.
With that being said, this album isn't particularly terrible. The above noted dynamics ensure that it is a listening experience that requires the listener to plug into the entire album. But that doesn't mean that there's something academic about it. This thing could be slapped into the stereo at a party and it just might work. It's just that, when it comes to getting into particular songs, it doesn't work as well.
Not great, but not bad. Just another B.A.D. album.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 You are not a B.A.D. fan if you don't love this album!!!! Feb 16, 2006
Contact, Union Jack????? Are you kidding me PEOPLE.... this is a Big Audio Dynamite CLASSIC, a must have for the total fan. I had this CD years and years ago and hearing it again freakin' ROCKS!!!
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