LA alternative band Badflower continues a massively successful promo campaign with “Heroin,” the third advance single from ‘OK, I’M SICK.’

“Now she’s in me / And I CAN’T let her go.” Hmm, sounds suspect to the nth degree.  Regardless, frontman Josh Katz and Badflower should be ‘feelin’ way too damn good’ right now.  That doesn’t seem to be case, given the singles leading up to their highly-anticipated debut album, OK, I’M SICK, arriving February 22, 2018.  That said, the album title isn’t exactly ‘optimism central’ in its own right. On “Ghost”, Badflower dabbled in suicide, while “x ANA x” tackled anxiety and reliance on the sedative, Xanax. Keeping things pessimistic, “Heroin” uses the drug metaphorically to depict an unhealthy, yet inescapable relationship. Killin’ ‘em with the optimism Katz.

“Heroin” naturally initiates enigmatically, with an intimate, somewhat indulgent sound.  This is a brilliant sense of ‘tone poem’ because one associates a relationship as being intimate, and the same can be said of the experience with an addictive drug like heroin.  After maintaining poise throughout the first verse (“She’s in my bed again / She marks her fingerprints in my skin / I breathe her perfume in / It burns like heroin”), Katz and company ‘go in’ on the dynamic chorus.

“And my bones are caving in

And she stole my faith again

And I wish you well

Oh, for the night

‘Til you come again.”

Naturally, during the chorus sections, the guitars are souped-up, while the bass line is robust, filling out the bottom superbly.  Badflower brings things back down on the second verse (“She’s in my veins again / But she knows that I’ll bleed her out before I wake”), as well as the bridge (“She’s in my life again / But she won’t ever win…”). The final chorus doesn’t reach the same grandiose nature of previous iterations, clearly highlighting the devastating effects of the ‘heroin.’

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I’m totally hyped-up for Badflower to release OK, I’M SICK.  That’s how it should be if a solo artist or band has done their job and released some incredible advance singles.   The only rub? Why do we have to wait so long the album to arrive? To quote Veruca Salt, “I Want It Now!” 

Badflower » OK, I’M SICK » Big Machine / John Varvatos » Release: 2.22.19

Photo Credits: Big Machine / John Varvatos