Together Pangea - Badillac (2014)

By all accounts, together PANGEA may be more surprised by the creative liberties taken on Badillac, their third full-length LP and first for Harvest Records, than anyone else. After all, articulating the underground ascent of the band is difficult if you’ve not even semi-frequented dives and dingy venues as recently as a year-and-a-half ago. Whether shopping tunes from their excellent Killer Dreams EP and their second full-length Living Dummy to tall boy-hurling punks, or serenading lover boy lullabies to glossy-eyed dreamers in dead-end saloons, those halcyon early days amounted to a kind of marination for vocalist/ guitarist William Keegan’s gritty garage sermons.
They’ve now been aged to near-perfection. Badillac is an exceptional album, as well as a great title track. For all the cryptic, adolescent symbolism of whatever a “Badillac” might be, the thrust of the song is propelled by a swinging rock ‘n’ roll anthem coupled with the sort of non-sequitur abandon that can only accompany a broken heart.

As such, betrayal comes in many forms on the album, with ripcord riffs slicing through snottily melodic vocals and smart movement changes. Keegan pays mention to “lying” and “trying” in the choruses of both the title track and the B-side scorcher “Why.” Confusion and disillusion permeate throughout.