No Dice (Expanded Edition)

Critics chirped that 1970’s No Dice found Badfinger simply aping the Fab Four. Yes, this was Badfinger’s second set for The Beatles’ own Apple Records, and the album’s inescapable first hit—“No Matter What”—might’ve fit on Rubber Soul or even Abbey Road. But Badfinger's songwriterly wisdom showed that the band was nobody’s knockoff. The songs had a sadness and honesty that went beyond the members' youth, even when the chords and guitar leads rocked as hard as anything else in the early '70s. That sincerity and verve is obvious on “Bloodwyn,” “Love Me Do,” and “I Can’t Take It”—and there probably isn’t another song in all of the '70s that better expresses the pain of lost love than the graceful “Without You.” (Both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey took “Without You” into the U.S. top 10, in 1972 and 1994 respectively.) The cello-stroked closer, “We’re for the Dark,” sets a strangely beautiful tone for the incredible bad luck that would plague Badfinger in the ensuing years.