Album reviews (Slipknot, Baroness, Dirty Radio, Redd Kross, Suzie McNeil)

Slipknot
Antennas To Hell
(Roadrunner)
Crow’s feet, grey hairs, and greatest hits albums. These are the early signs of aging in the heavy-metal world. The award-winning juggernauts of Slipknot oppose this stigma and jab us in the face with the Botox needle they call Antennas to Hell. This two-disc “duality” of studio and live versions of some of the band’s best head-snapping tracks isn’t just a money-grabbing re-gurgitation of past glory but more a reminder of why this band has dominated the modern metal arena for 17 years. There seems to be an effort to bring the Iowa band’s best cards to the table, reigniting the flames in its older fan base whilst attracting a new crop of metalheads who would have been in diapers when Slipknot emerged on the scene. The 19 songs on the studio disc are a bevy of fantastic offerings and quintessential tracks such as “Wait and Bleed,” “Duality,” “Vermilion,” and their 2006 Grammy-winning “Before I Forget.” The second disc, a 17-track live album taken from the band’s 2009 performance at the Download festival in England’s Donington Park, is completely invigorating. Unlike some live releases, the separation between the listener and Slipknot’s performance is a thin veneer. Burrs of raw energy and audience cheers stand out and catch your ears. For veteran fans, Antennas to Hell is a must-have, since it’s the band’s last recording before the passing of longtime bassist Paul (No. 2) Gray. For newer fans who don’t want to peruse the band’s catalogue to get their playlist perfect, this two-disc release is the perfect distillation of all things Slipknot.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
–Jarrod Bennett, Postmedia News

Baroness
Yellow Green
(Relapse)
Yellow Green can be a difficult record to accept for Baroness fans. The core fundamentals of the Savannah, Ga. band are still here — enormous hooks and borderline medieval acoustic riffing and John Dyer Baizley’s booming vocals — but sonically, Yellow Green is a giant leap into the unknown. The double album sees the band shedding many of the heavier progressive trappings of its two preceding albums, Red Album and Blue Record, and adopting a slick, polished rock sound. It doesn’t make Yellow Green any less captivating, but the record’s immediacy is, oddly enough, off-putting. The first half is of the crunch-laden variety (“Take My Bones Away,” “Sea Lungs”), while the second is more atmospheric, philosophical in nature (“Board Up the House,” “Foolsong”). There is a fine human poignancy in Yellow Green that stretches out beyond the Baroness of old, and once it fully sinks in, it’s something to behold.
Rating: 4 out of 5
–Francois Marchand, Postmedia News

Dirty Radio
Cassette
(Trickery)
It’s one of those things that has become a kind of hipster gimmick: Putting out an album — or in this case a mixtape — on an old-school cassette. It’s not like anyone still has a boom box or tape deck at home, but if you get your hands on Vancouver group Dirty Radio’s Cassette in proper tape form, you’ll probably want to dust off your vintage gear. Hints of pop (“Holiday”), acoustic guitar (“No Good For You”), and electro and dubstep flavours (“27″) abound on this 10-track collection on which singer Farshad Edalat emulates the contemporary pop-soul stylings of Usher, Drake and Cee Lo. The real charm of Cassette is that you likely won’t find yourself wanting to skip through any of the group’s summery songs, something you wouldn’t have really been able to do back in the day anyway. (Cassette is available for free download at www.freecassette.com.)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
– Francois Marchand, Postmedia News

Redd Kross
Researching the Blues
(Merge)
The title track alone is a master class in garage-oid crunch, but the first Redd Kross album in 15 years is much more than that. The deans of L.A. psychedelic pop make a statement in songcraft, and as this unfolds, you’re left wondering why every Nuggets-style album can’t dig as deep and radiate as many guitar colours. “Dracula’s Daughter” shimmers like a great lost gorgeous ’60s pop anthem, “Uglier” is true, and when it’s time for stomp, “The Nu Temptations” unloads it. More than genre-rockers, these songs bristle with ideas and energy, all under four minutes. Inspirational lines: “You can win / but only from within.” Rock is sick; make way for the ambulance.
Rating: 4 out of 5
–Mark Lepage, Postmedia News

Suzie McNeil
Dear Love
(Universal)
It’s easy to be cynical about Suzie McNeil, the Canuck reality-TV survivor who has been gamely soldiering on since earning a spoonful of fame as the last woman standing on Rock Star: INXS. Dedicating her fourth record to “everyone who has ever lived through love and loss,” the Torontonian even gives a shoutout to ex-fiancé Scott Walters for being her muse. McNeil has been more than forthcoming about the romantic turmoil that led to these songs. But don’t expect Dear Love to be a harrowing breakup album. Beck’s Sea Change it ain’t. Dear Love works because it has all of the trappings of a shameless, radio-grabbing pop album. Immaculate production, airplay-friendly hooks, a semi-cool ’80s cover (The Eurythmics’ “Here Comes the Rain Again”) and even some celebrity musical guests (albeit Canadian celebrity musical guests that nobody has heard of) is the formula here, offering a breezy run through pop-rock strains that possess more polish than soul. Still, McNeil has a powerful voice and a nice way of surrounding her hooks with memorable melodies. As a result, tracks such as “Heartbeat,” “Merry Go Round” and “Drama Queen” are more likely to have you mindlessly singing along than pondering the grander ramifications of “love and loss.”
Rating: 3 out of 5
–Eric Volmers, Postmedia News