This is just ludicrous. I can recall seeing the viddy for “My Face” in some pre-MTV situation and thinking to myself, “this sounds good, I should get that album!” The album in question was called “Life Is A Grand” by Henry Badowski, and adding insult to injury, I.R.S. Records was retailing it in 1981 at a low $5.98 list price. Which means that I probably would have paid $3.99 at Record Mart Warehouse; my primary record store of the time. The single was pure New Wave goodness. But in 1981 the music was peaking for my ears.

Every band I was into seemed to be putting out their best ever music then. And there was so much of it! It felt like a limitless pipeline of music excellence from Monastic faves like Ultravox, OMD, John Foxx, and Gary Numan. There was so much out there bursting into my receptive eardrums that I wanted that I quickly lost the plot on Henry Badowski. Within a year, I can’t recall seeing this album in the bins any more. And I don’t think I saw a used copy, ever.

I finally got the “My Face” single in the 90s and it made it to “mix tape classic” status with me, but never found the LP. It was some time in the 21st century that I resolved to finally buy the LP and make my own CD-R since no label seemed to be interested in reissuing this one. But the copies for sale online were pricey and usually in foreign countries. With the commensurately high postal costs on top of the vintage wax tax.

As of last March, I could strike that and the other singles from my endless want list since Caroline True Records have done us a favor by remastering “Life Is A Grand” and reissuing it on just 300 LPs and CDs each. I’m thrilled that they deigned to sully their hands with the hipster kryptonite CD format but they did and I have a copy now in the Record Cell. Let’s discuss!

Henry Badowski: Life Is A Grand – UK – CD [2025]

1. My Face 03:22
2. Henry’s In Love 03:07
3. Swimming With The Fish In The Sea 04:44
4. The Inside Out 03:02
5. Life Is A Grand 03:44
6. Silver Trees 03:35
7. This Was Meant To Be 03:50
8. Anywhere Else 03:55
9. Baby Sign Here With Me 03:49
10. Rampant 04:08
11. Making Love With My Wife (7″ Single Version) 02:38
12. Making Love With My Wife (Machines Compilation Version) 03:02
13. Four More Seasons (My Face 7″ B Side) 04:35
14. Lamb To The Slaughter (Henry’s In Love 7″ B Side) 03:26
15. King-Baby Sign Here With Me (1978 John Peel Session Version) 04:10

The song faded in with bass throb, motorik drumming, and some deliciously out of fashion la-la-las from the artist. The synth chords could have been electric organ in an earlier time. Then guitar descending chords and a drum fill shunted us into the earworm chorus as Henry exclaimed “could you believe I take me seriously.” “My Face” was a single in 1980 in advance of the album itself. It was strongly redolent of an early Eno Pop attempt; albeit with a more straightforward lyric. The sax playing here by Mr. Badowski was also rather Bowie-esque in its basic simplicity.

The song simply oozed low-fi charm in ways that the 1980 Pop market was ready to abandon. By 1981, when the album itself was released, the vibe was steely and glinting as the New Romantic trend was at peak frenzy. In contract, this song pointed more towards the ’78-’80 New Wave vibe. The warm production was made in a simple eight-track studio and I can’t imagine this song under the aegis of, let’s say, Trevor Horn!

“Henry’s In Love” was possibly even more Eno-esque! The simple rhythm box driven music bed abetting Badowski’s drily clinical self-examination of the lyric was touched with bass guitar from James Stevenson and Henry’s own winsome synths. Yes, it was Eno-inspired, but also sat on a shelf with early China Crisis like “African + White.” But China Crisis leaned on oboe instead of the sax here. Henry added lots of percussive detail to “Swimming With The Fish In The Sea” as the slow tempo rhythm box and swooping synths evoked the undersea world. When jangly guitar appeared in the song’s climax it was as if the tune’s entire world had changed.

The Eno references come fast and furious with “The Inside Out,” which prefigures the vibe of Eno/Cale’s “Crime In The Desert” which was a decade down the road from this album, so the knife cuts both ways! I think that the two artists probably share many sensibilities. That Eno has become a justifed  elder statesman of Pop theory and Art Rock while Henry Badowski is finally getting his one album reissued 44 years later [in a combined edition of 600!] is probably down to marketing and providence. The sublime New Wave Bop that was this song was simply unbeatable. Miles Copeland told co-producer Wally Brill to mix the album like a late 60s early stereo record with the guitar in one channel while other instruments occupied the right channel. It gave the tracks like this one a vivid, bracing quality.

The amazing title track was probably the richest sounding mix here as the hard-panned minimalism of much of that had come before was abandoned for the jaunty instrumental. The swaggering sax work from Badowski give this song the whiff of a great track left off of Andy MacKay’s “In Search Of Eddie Riff!” Great, lyrical guitar from Mr. Stevenson fill in admirably for any singing not present here.

The glorious “Silver Trees” was simply the best track not on “Taking Tiger Mountain [By Strategy]” with its chugging rhythm box and gentle washes of synths. Henry’s droll and dry vocalizing was contrasted by the warm jet guitar from Stevenson. I particularly enjoyed the synth chirping like a cricket tucked away in here.

I can believe that the album was made completely with monosynths when listening to a track like “This Was Meant To Be,” which was a German single. The ascending synth figure hook repeated throughout the song was a delight to the ear. The metronomic pulse gating gave the track a kinetic sparkle and the sax kept it all from being too pixilated. 

The pulsating, lurching vibe of “Anywhere Else” featured an undercurrent of unease largely foreign to the album as it began to approach its end. The typically dispassionate vocals of Badowski started to recall Donovan by this point in the program but Donovan would never end a song so coldly as the strangulated example here.

The other song from this album I had been familiar with from college radio play, back in the day was the cheerful “Baby, Sign Here With Me.” Using industry clichés to reframe a love song. The pulse gated synth wheezing against the bombastic drum fills were certainly a shocker in the context of this album. The octave swooping delivery of the “Baaaaaaa–by” hook each chorus began with tended to stick like napalm. I had vivid memories of this song for the 44 years in which I had not heard it! The synth solo in the middle eight was decidedly cheerful and redolent of a calliope. Yet the song’s complex fade was not unlike a “For Your Pleasure” deep cut. Intriguing!

Another excellent instrumental closed out the album with the pensive “Rampant.” The tempo here was slow and featured descending piano glissandos and the bass line of…”Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” Which was already borrowed to begin from Horace Silver! The lazy end of album vibe was all about the piano here as it all circled around onto itself until the fadeout.

The single version of “Making Love With My Wife” followed on from the original LP as the CD bonus track. The honking sax solo [doubled by Badowski] injected some wide-eyed excitement into the chocolate box poise of it all. It’s the kind of song that Wes Anderson might have recorded had he been a musician instead of a director.

The downloads that accompanied the CD and LP purchase on Bandcamp had four more bonus tracks to flesh out the Badowski story. Next the alternate mix from the Virgin 1980 compilation LP “Machines.” It featured Alexsander Kolkowski’s Old World violin intro before being quickly distanced by the organ drone and cha-cha rhythm box. The EQ on this mix was flat and murkier with Henry’s voice buried in the mix.

Nothing we had heard thus far prepared us for the non-LP B-side of “My Face!” “Four More Seasons” was an instrumental built upon only three elements: a harmonica lead, chord support from an accordion, and a synth set to a random bird chirp patch! I’m venturing a guess that it’s a play on Vivaldi’s greatest hits but I can’t recognize any of the familiar melodies buried in the cheerful wheezing mess.

“Lamb To The Slaughter” from the B-side to “Henry’s In Love” was more in line with the values of the Album. Then finally the 1978 Peel session version of “Baby, Sign Here With Me” showed that it had been all planned and ready for some time. The version here was far more Rock-oriented and dynamic than the purposefully flat and droll album vibe.

I’ve really enjoyed having this album around for the last week. I’m shamed that I didn’t spring for the 1981 LP like I was contemplating that year. I should have had this one in my Record Cell all along. I’m happy that the album finally made CD though a few telltale clicks and pops [particularly in the Machines version of “Making Love With My Wife”] jump out without the need for critical headphone analysis. I’ve not heard any obvious artifacts in the album cuts. They may have been mastered from a tape but even if not, the album was recorded in a cheap eight track studio [Pathway] and this was never intended to be a Trevor Horn Production.

It’s a cheerfully idiosyncratic album that I’m delighted is once available to buy and hear no matter its provenance. Had it not happened, I would have had to obtain a copy of the 1981 LP at approximately $50.00 in cost [to say nothing of the 7” bonus tracks – probably another $50 there counting postage] and invest about 20 hours to make a CD but twenty five dollars later [including postage] and I’m set for the rest of my days to groove to the playful sounds that Henry Badowski committed to album when I was just a lad. If that sounds good to you too, the CD is down to 40 copies left and I don’t think that the LP is too far behind. DJ hit that button!

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