{"id":7743,"date":"2019-08-23T07:35:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T07:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=7743"},"modified":"2019-08-23T07:35:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T07:35:30","slug":"redd-kross-beyond-the-door-merge-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=7743","title":{"rendered":"Redd Kross – \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019 (Merge Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cNo one knows what lies Beyond the Door\u2026 but we\u2019re all in front of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So reads the PR blurb that accompanies the all-new eleven-track studio record from South Californian powerpop punk legends Redd Kross, their first new set of songs since 2012\u2019s amazing \u2018Researching The Blues\u2019 album, and you know in many ways that opening statement pretty much summed up how I first approached \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019, largely because I really did not know what to expect from the band this time around.<\/p>\n

With band mainstays Jeff and Steven McDonald promising their most collaborate record since their \u2018Born Innocent\u2019 debt from way back in 1981, would the inclusion of Anna Waronker (That Dog), the returning Ger\u00e9 Fennelly, Buzz Osborne (Melvins), and Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) really mess with the powerpop magic formula I have come to know and love the band forever since first discovering them via their genre-defining \u2018Third Eye\u2019 album released back in 1990?<\/p>\n

Cautiously dipping into \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019 the most immediate thing that strikes me is that it is a very \u201cUP\u201d sounding album, in fact\u00a0 the gangs total commitment to having the best fucking time they can have while they\u2019re all still here is obvious during the stunning opening 1-2 of \u2018The Party\u2019 and \u2018Fighting\u2019, both tracks sounding like the natural progression to the sixties psych-pop perfection of \u2018Researching The Blues\u2019. Guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer Dale Crover (Melvins, OFF!) are long-time members of the Redd Kross live band, and here they kick off their recording debut with the band in very fine fashion indeed, with both of the opening four to the floor rockers being what I would consider soon to be live favourites.<\/p>\n

That live energy continues into the KISS meets Glitter Band swagger of \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019 whilst \u2018There\u2019s No One Like You\u2019 could very easily be something the McDonald brothers recorded during their post-grunge \u2018Show World\u2019 days. \u2018Ice Cream (Strange And Pleasing)\u2019 meanwhile is the kind of sugar-sweet bubblegum pop that the band excelled at during their \u2018Third Eye\u2019 days as is the uptempo glam slammer \u2018Fantastico Roberto\u2019. Phew!! That\u2019s one hell of a set of tunes right there. Tunes which whilst maybe not quite as refined as the \u2018Researching The Blues\u2019 album they do possess a vibrancy and unpredictability that record did miss at times.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Party Underground\u2019 is a classic example of this as it sounds like Bob Mould has just popped into the studio and cracked off a tune whilst the closing cover of Sparks\u2019 electro-dance anthem \u2018When Do I Get To Sing \u201cMy Way\u201d\u2019 really is a truly inspired choice, turning out to a perfect fit for the Redd Kross sound.<\/p>\n

So, with that in mind what is the Redd Kross sound here in 2019? Well, it\u2019s probably best summed up the trio of songs that remain for me to mention on \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019. \u2018What\u2019s A Boy To Do\u2019 is yet another lesson in how to write bubblegum pop perfection whilst \u2018Punk II\u2019 thunders along like the Hamburg Beatles speeding their tits off before Lennon and McCartney then get whisked off to Seattle around the turn of the nineties for \u2018Jone Hoople\u2019 and all hell is duly let loose.<\/p>\n

Look you can stand outside that door forever wondering \u201cwhat if\u201d but the real magic always lies beyond it. \u00a0Redd Kross are most certainly back with a bang with \u2018Beyond The Door\u2019 and with US dates already planned with the Melvins we here in the UK can but hope that they will finally return to these shores sometime soon.<\/p>\n

Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy Beyond The Door Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo one knows what lies Beyond the Door\u2026 but we\u2019re all in front of it.\u201d So reads the PR blurb that accompanies the all-new eleven-track studio record from South Californian powerpop punk legends Redd Kross, their first new set of songs since 2012\u2019s amazing \u2018Researching The Blues\u2019 album, and you know in many ways that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2213,1818,2212,2052],"class_list":["post-7743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-beyond-the-door","tag-new-album","tag-redd-kross","tag-vinyl","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7746,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7743\/revisions\/7746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}