When they began in 2009, Australia’s Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys immediately lived up to their name. Though their music was never a joke, the band could come off as a stumbling, drunken wreck. By the time of their debut album, in 2013, they decided to grow up a bit, which is why they called it Ready for Boredom. “It seemed to indicate this exit from us being a party band,” said singer and bassist Nic Warnock. “Life is becoming more apparent, I guess. I worry about shit more.”
So how has growing up gone so far? It’s not a great sign that the quartet decided to call their follow-up album Rot, but its songs tell a more hopeful story. Many of them are about finding the maturity and patience to take life as it comes. Guitarist Joe Sukit opens the record singing about the need “to relent control,” and the rest of the way—in songs with names like “Expanding Horizons” and “Turn the Page”—the band returns to themes of acceptance and gratitude. “Well, it’s a long and lonely life,” Warnock hums on “Stunned.” “But for me that’ll do alright/Until something comes along.”
Luckily, lyrical maturation doesn’t mean turning soft musically. None of Rot’s 11 songs are a mess—the rhythms are tight and the riffs are on target—but the album is still pretty raucous. Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys remain unafraid to scrawl outside the lines and spill into the red. When Sukit strains to sing, “Try to change your life, but life changes you,” during “Device,” the rough density of the guitars makes his struggle palpable. This combination of energy and wisdom aligns Rot with their soulful Aussie brethren Royal Headache (Sukit is a former member; Warnock’s label RIP Society released that group’s first album). But Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys attack their songs with an industrious devotion that sets Rot apart.
Rot’s nose-to-the-grindstone feel fits its grown-up themes. It also risks blurring songs together; at times, the simple melodies fly by nicely enough without making much of an impression. But more often than not, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys hit on hooks with plenty of earworm power. “Plastic Tears,” one of the album’s rare biting tunes, boasts an insta-classic guitar line, while “Work Again” turns muscular chords into a head-nodding workout. At their best, they can be both catchy and epic, as in the seven-minute closer, “Turn the Page.” “Things that happen may be strange/But I’m gonna embrace that change,” sings Warnock in what could be the band’s theme song. “Wanna deal with life's big mysteries/Trying not to sweat the small things.”
On the page, such blunt self-therapy may sound a bit on the nose. But the band sell their introspection by marrying it to convincingly urgent music. It’s also a lot of fun; all the flying guitar chords and thumping beats inevitably quicken pulses. Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys may no longer be pissing their sheets, but Rot shows they didn’t have to slow down to grow up. Or as Warnock put it back in 2013, “You can be a piece of shit but still do something awesome.”
