Music fans are a loyal breed and reticent to change, which can often make it hard for an artist to change tack and straddle different genres. Take Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and the tangent his solo career took in the 1990’s; his desire for exploration was rewarded with diminishing sales and a dwindling audience. Gary Moore, however, was an artist who bucked the trend. His transmogrification from metal guitarist to elder bluesman occurred at the same time as Dickinson’s switch, yet not only did Gary retain his fanbase, he increased his market share, gaining his first gold album in the States with 1990 album, Still Got The Blues. It was undoubtedly Gary’s authenticity that made his tangent succeed where others failed and a genuineness shines through every note of his seventeenth solo album, Bad For You Baby. The last album to be released in Gary’s lifetime, it finds him delivering eleven hard-edged songs that find him colouring his sound with various shades of azure.

If there was any doubts to Gary Moore’s status as guardian of the blues then they are blown away by opening (and title-track) ‘Bad For You Baby’. My God, that shuffle! It’s a vibrant and colourful opener which proves that Gary hasn’t lost his knack for making a grand entrance. In fact, not since Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut, Texas Flood, has an artist burst from the speakers with such effervescence as Moore does on ‘Bad For You Baby’. Wrapping the listener up with guitar solos that have the texture of razor wire, Gary immediately snares us and holds us captive over the next fifty-five minutes. Like a boxer landing a one-two punch, ‘Down The Line’ continues in a similar vein with warm valves in Marshall amplifiers providing a warm, treacly sound which finds Gary running up and down the fretboard like a fiddler’s elbow, and with such ferocity that it feels as if the needle will jump out the groove at any moment.

Bad For You Baby was Gary’s third album in as many years, following hot on the heels of Old, New, Ballads, Blues (2006) and Close As You Get (2007), some might lament the lack of progression, and while it’s true that Gary isn’t reinventing the wheel, he certainly isn’t treading water. As with heavy metal, the blues is an art form that’s denigrated as being one-dimensional by those who don’t fully understand the genre, yet it’s a multifaceted beast and Gary takes us on a journey to its various nooks and crannies from the slow and sultry ‘Umbrella Man’ to the turbo-boosted ‘Walkin’ Thru The Park’ (the first of two McKinley Morganfield covers) and all without missing a beat. It’s a constant motion, a rotation of various blues styles, that ensures Bad For You Baby never becomes staid and stagnant, but when songs are as vibrant as ‘Mojo Boogie’, there was never any danger of that. The ten-and-a-half minute ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know’ and the nine-and-a-half minute closer ‘Trouble Ain’t Far Behind’ are hypnotic and alter the very fabric of time, condensing their extended running times into mere moments.

The album’s production is punchy and pugnacious, and punctuated by slabs of white space and as such it sounds both expansive and intimate. This loving reissue doesn’t tinker with the sound too much, enhancing things rather than rearranging. 2008 found Gary Moore at the top of his game, and with this album in your hands, you’ll be Bad For You Baby, too.

• Bad For You Baby is released via BMG on 24th April 2026.

Track List:

1. Bad For You Baby
2. Down The Line
3. Umbrella Man
4. Holding On
5. Walkin’ Thru The Park
6. I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
7. Mojo Boogie
8. Someday Baby
9. Did You Ever Feel Lonely?
10. Preacher Man Blues
11. Trouble Ain’t Far Behind