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Bad Boy Bill
The Album
By Brian Baker
If you’re America’s favorite DJ, the co-founder of the Internet’s most visited site for dance music downloads and the mastermind behind the best selling dance compilation series ever (five volumes of Bangin’ the Box), there’s really just one frontier left to conquer: Become the artist that all other DJs are spinning during their sets. If Bad Boy Bill’s golden touch follows him into the performing arena, it will just be another notch on his already intricately carved belt. It would seem he’s well on his way; “Falling Anthem,” the first single from Bill’s debut as an artist, titled simply The Album, is already in the Top 10 on Billboard‘s dance chart. Like a good deal of The Album, “Falling Anthem” features Bill’s patented electronic pulse applied to an infectious R&B/pop tune sung with husky Pink-tinged abandon by Alyssa Palmer. Palmer is an evocative presence on The Album in her quartet of winsome vocal appearances, particularly on Bill’s re-imagined and adrenalized version of her own “If I Tell You” and the dance-classic-in-waiting, “Do What U Like.”
Elsewhere, Bill turns Herbie Hancock’s landmark “Rockit” into a pure electronic exercise in dance/funk, injects thumping beats into the driving guitar pop of “Got That Feeling” (with vocals by Eric Jag) and the equally driven but slightly more soulful “Ishy” (sung by Palmer). Like his best club sets, Bill mixes atmosphere and pace on The Album; the spacey, Fergie-touched rock hop of “Headlock” with Johanna Phraze, the electronic hip hop throb of “Bite It” featuring Ryan “Kid Infinity” Padeiro and the kitchen sink blast of the disc’s closer, the appropriately titled “Don’t Stop.” The Album confirms Bad Boy Bill‘s formidable skills as an acclaimed spinner but signals his new role as a gifted dance music artist in his own right.
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