Review: TJ Stafford's "All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This" Album
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When I first started “All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This”, I was anticipating a very dark and brooding album about love, lust, and what was lost.
‘Crazy’ brings the raw and rugged edges of the darker side of love: the pain of wanting the love another until it drives you absolutely insane. ‘Catch’ gives the listener a softer parallel of ambiance. Both songs pull the listener through the Stafford’s emotional heartbreak, but ‘Catch’ reveal a pensive and almost wistful take on the pains of love.
The album then takes a sharp turn for optimism. We still experience the same raw emotion felt in the two opening songs, but we now get to savor Stafford’s sultry voice in self-assured and bold themes featured within the songs ‘Fame’ and ‘Keep It Grooving’.
You can hear his lust for attention in ‘Fame’ as he craves for the love of everyone who’s here to learn his name. He demands for “15 minutes of love”, no negotiation of how much he’s going to take from you, but he assures you that you’ll soon be a fan.
Honestly, he’s not wrong. I’m definitely a fan of this album. ‘Keep It Grooving’ brings you to a crass, carefree high in the album featuring raw guitar riffs that switch out with a funky bass as the chorus eases back in; it’s the perfect song to enjoy on a hot, humid summer day!
We return to a certain feeling of darkness, this time accompanied with insecurity and cold apathy in the tracks ‘World of Wonder’ and ‘I Don’t Mind’, before quickly being warmed by
Stafford’s audacious charisma in the album closer ‘Get Up’.
There is no single emotion that can describe this album as a whole; Staffords unabashed display of all of his emotions washes over you, song after song. “All My Bad Habits Have Prepared Me For This” offers us an anthology of his mental, his mantras, and his core with this summer’s release.