Album Review: Baroness - Yellow & Green

Baroness are a polarizing entity in the world of modern metal. They have been making their presence felt profoundly over the last half decade; playing Coachella, touring with Metallica, etc, but their detractors still decry them as Mastodon-lite. Over the course of their previous two albums the band from Savannah, Georgia has been trying to stake a claim to their unique identity in among the world of sludge metal. Their latest album, a 75-minute double CD opus Yellow & Green, may be their strongest statement of individuality yet and hopefully one that sticks once and for all. In today's world of MP3s, iTunes, and Soundcloud some would argue that full-length albums are a dying art form which makes a double-album (the mainstay of 70s prog rock) particularly audacious. But that is indeed what Baroness have made; two short albums that are linked thematically but can be easily digested as separate entities.

The Yellow half starts on a familiar note. After the short introductory instrumental the barn-storming 'Take My Bones Away' picks up right where Blue Record left off. It is a song bellowed at top volume, riffs and hooks aplenty, and has a vigorous pace that is carried on by 'March To The Sea'. It is the second half of Yellow that really takes flight. From the gothic-acoustic 'Twinkler' onwards the album hits an almighty stride; through the brooding and buzzing 'Cocainium', the mournful expanse of 'Back Where I Belong', the desperation of 'Sea Lungs', and finally 'Eula' which ends the first half on a gorgeously dark note. The increased uses of melody and harmony elevate these songs and let them plant hooks in your mind that take days – sometimes weeks – to remove. But if Yellow felt like Baroness chasing their Blue Record muse to its logical, proggy conclusion then Green is a voyage into uncharted waters. It touches upon indie rock, post-rock, country, dub, electronica and so much more making it the “experimental” disc by comparison. By now Baizley has settled well into his clean-singing style and the listener has gotten used the groove and the rhythm of the album which makes room for these stylistic leaps.

What made Blue Record so striking was the self-assured classic rock undertones. For Yellow & Green these tendencies have bloomed into a psychedelic fingerprint which runs rampant. How else can you accommodate the subtle acid rock flourishes of 'MTNS' from one of America's great sludge proponents? That track is revolutionary in that it has more in common with Morphine than it does Slayer – an outright sin in the metal-verse. That is not to say that Baroness have forgotten themselves in part two, just that they've taken some time to expand their horizons. If you should feel lost or alienated in this calm but dreadful storm just hold out until the end. Right at the end the familiar returns in the form of 'The Line Between', positively erupting back into glorious sludge metal albeit with a healthy dose of harmony.

Special mention must be made of the usage of the bass guitar. Metal acts are notorious for under-utilizing the four string but Baroness seem to be reversing the trend. It is front and center on Yellow's 'Little Things' and 'Cocainium', practically more prominent on these tracks than the other guitars. It is a small alteration in the mix but it gives the album an entirely different feel to both Red and Blue. I actually cannot remember the last time that a metal album (by any definition of the term) really struck me lyrically as much as Yellow & Green has. There might have been an arcane meaning behind a song like 'Isak' or 'A Horse Called Golgotha' but it was hidden under mountains of metalisms. 'Back Where I Belong' does not suffer the same fate, allowing you to comprehend the ingenious cruelty in a line like “Here's the rub / there's no difference / between poison and the cure / when the one tastes so great its a crying shame / that I'm back where I belong”.

Heavy is no longer about saturating your songs with amplifiers and bong-crushing bass, but rather something that is emotional and psychological by nature. Lowering the volume a little has allowed a lot of heart and soul to creep in. It is by this philosophy that Pink Floyd can be as heavy as Led Zeppelin, King Crimson as heavy as Black Sabbath, Tool as heavy as Pantera. It is an elemental weight that is evident even in the quiet passages. But this is not the quiet of exhaustion – it is of isolation and dread. Baroness have joined the likes of Opeth and Mastodon in the upper echelons of acts who have evolved beyond merely being a metal band. You can feel them crossing the line of being a heavy band with the potential for great musicality to being musicians capable of great heaviness. Ironically Baroness' most introspective album to date is the most likely to propel them to stardom. If Red Album was a primal scream and Blue Record a hungry growl, then Yellow & Green are a buzz and a moan respectively and make for one of this year's most intriguing listening experiences.

Yellow
Rating: A+
Recommended tracks: Cocainium, Sealungs, Eula

Green
Rating: B+
Recommended tracks: Board Up The House, The Line Between

Overall Rating: A

Album Review: The Cult - Choice of Weapon

If you have only heard their enduring 1985 hit single 'She Sells Sanctuary' it might come as a surprise that The Cult have been around, on and off, for nearly 30 years and have released nine studio albums. Those more familiar with them will know that The Cult are still riding the wave of re-invigoration they have been enjoying since their injection of new blood in 2006. That new blood came in the form of bass player Chris Wyse (Ozzy Osbourne) and drummer John Tempesta (Helmet, White Zombie). Much like their 80s contemporaries Guns'N'Roses however, The Cult are practically a two-man game. Many may have had their hands in the pot and left their fingerprints on the discography but singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy are the true owners of the moniker. While Born Into This might have been their most engaging record in years it suffered from an identity crisis. Producer Youth (The Orb, Killing Joke) made the unusual choice in blunting Duffy's feral guitar oeuvres and pushing them deeper in the mix. The Cult might be getting on (Astbury and Duffy are anyway) but they are some of rock'n'roll's greatest survivors and they are all geared up to prove it with Choice Of Weapon.

This time around along with the ubiquitous Bob Rock, production duties are handled by Masters Of Reality's Chris “godfather of desert rock” Goss. As well as his own band's storied career, Goss has lent his talents to an amazing pantheon of rockers including Queens of the Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots, Kyuss, and Screaming Trees. These two men know how to make rock'n'roll sound big, powerful, even playful and it starts right away with 'Honey From A Knife'. The album's very first song is a fun affair that can actually pull of a chorus as daft as “we got the drugs” being chanted cheerleader-style ad infinitum. As we have come to expect, when these crafty veterans a firing on all cylinders, stand back!'Life > Death', aside from having a blatant truism for a title, has the sound of an older, world-weary Queen and the ominous 'Lucifer' has all the ungodly swagger of a lost Black Sabbath classic. But underneath all the stadium-sized bravado there is a tender, wounded soul at the heart of The Cult. You can find it in Astbury's time-worn croon on the vulnerable 'Elemental Light', easily one of their best songs in decades. Album closer 'This Night In The City Forever' is a majestic kiss-off that would not be out of place in their canon if they collectively decided to hang up their bandanas and call it a day.

Maybe this shift in energy is fueled by behind-the-scenes politics. Between Choice of Weapon and Born Into This the band were dropped from Roadrunner Records. Their new appointment with Cooking Vinyl lets them breathe a little easier and allows them to stake their claim at rock god status once again unfettered by label interference despite the big names behind the mixing desk. As we have come to expect from resurgent rockers all of the good intentions in the world cannot save a lackluster or deficient concept, and as with pretty much every Cult album there are some definite low-points. 'The Wolf' sounds like a lukewarm Velvet Revolver outtake (one that was left on the cutting room floor for good reason) and 'Amnesia' barely leaves an impression. All this means is that you have to learn to take the good with the bad, something which should have been a mantra for fans of The Cult since the early 90s anyway.

Rating: B+

Recommended tracks: Elemental Light, Life > Death

Album Review: Neneh Cherry & The Thing - The Cherry Thing

Aside from a few one-off featuring appearances, Neneh Cherry has not been heard from much since her 1996 masterpiece Raw Like Sushi. The one-time trip-hop chanteusse has been out of the spotlight for some time now but she has found one hell of an inroad to return with. That would be her new album The Cherry Thing, and it is the wildest entry to her small but potent canon. What makes this release so different from her others is the inclusion of Swedish jazz trio, The Thing. Considering that The Thing named themselves after a song by Don Cherry – that would be Neneh's father - this collaboration is not so much a revelation as it is an inevitability.

Most of the songs on the album are covers that range from quite natural selections (Martina Topley-Bird's 'Too Tough To Die' and Ornette Coleman's 'What Reason Could I Give?') to the downright absurd (MF DOOM's 'Accordion'). It is to the testament of everybody involved that the whole ordeal comes off very evenhandedly as opposed to a haphazard collection of disparate cover songs. Even poppa Cherry gets a look in with a very subdued take on 'Golden Heart'. This unholy but entirely organic pairing take a free-wheeling approach to the material at their disposal that is as mad as it is infectious. Even the brutish Stooges classic 'Dirt' cannot escape their delicate fervor. The Cherry Thing's interpretation of this song is a balancing act between the original's narcotic stomp and the fiery jazz maelstrom at their fingertips. Every time the saxophones howl and spiral out of control you are thrown back into the relative safety of that legendary leaden groove.

Cherry's voice is the driving element underpinning many of these outlandish compositions. She is smoky, lusty, and sensual but is also capable of great sonic violence should the need arise. See how, at just over the one minute mark, opening song 'Cashback' folds and crumples into a lopsided salsa while Cherry keeps time. The Cherry Thing is a restless record that never stands still long enough to be fully pinned down which, I'm sure, suits Neneh and co perfectly.

Rating: B+

Recommended tracks: Dirt, Cashback