Baroness - Yellow And Green (2012)

haha it's the alice-in-chains remark that is thus far preventing me from checking this out

there's actually a pretty big surplus of metal bands with awesome clear vocals & harmonies right now however I think the key thing that metal bands who want to get that non-specialty press nod do is hire non-metal producers: Baroness has been with Congleton since early on, his style's pretty "sure, we'll cover this"-friendly*, and another crossover act, Mastodon, has always been attentive about whether the people they're working with provide them with a bridge to non-specialty press/audiences.

*he's also a very good & capable producer, don't get me wrong, but the chances that a metal band goes into a session w/him & comes out with a straight-up metal album seem slim to me

I didn't know until tonight that their singer does all their artwork. And lots of other album art, too, I guess. Love that Nouveau vibe.

I don't (or didn't) hate Baroness at all. Blue was top ten of the year for me, and The best parts of Red got the apocalyptic feel of Killing Joke into southern prog. But I'm never too keen on harmonies. I don't really hear the 90s alt, except the bits that were filtered through late UK prog like that bee girl song. This record has this brainlessness that makes it the biggest disappointment for me since the Entrance follow up to Prayer of Death.

They've lost what was odd about them.

I really want to enjoy these guys, but their production choices are a big distraction that keep me from really getting immersed in the music. I wish they'd bring down those big thuddy drums a bit and crank up the guitars. At least on this one, the drums and guitars sound more like they exist in the same sonic space than they did on Blue.

cow man mooing noises and giant beards.

yup

dude I swear the chorus of march into the sea is identical to something on killjoys, the last mcr album. I don't have it on hand so I can't say which song, but i will try to figure it out later for my own peace of mind.

"bulletproof heart"

i hear a strain of j. robbins (jawbox / burning airlines / channels) on (if i'm getting the title right) 'take my bones away'. the voice.

super, super big alt-rock-radio vibe.

this is so borrrrring

i kinda feel sorry for you if you find this kind of thing boring.

ok?

i kinda get the nickelback thing

ti's got it's moments musically but yeah feels like basically an extremely high functioning FM "active rock" format 00s band w/prog tendencies

but i'm diggint it overall

that came off more snarky than i intended it to be. i can totally see this not being your thing, but i think they're hitting this sort of anthemic strain of alt-rock that i don't really associate with "boring".

i didn't like mastodon v. much once they cleaned up their sound and got "accessible" either, i guess it's my prob

some of these songs are pretty pokey, like "eula" for example....

yeah i'm hearing a LOT of midtempo when i pick my way through this.

also do not like how the rhythm guitar sounds.

almost done w/first disc

i dunno i might have a to take a break and listen to the undertones or motown or something, this is all so manly

This is pretty good radio rock but it's a shitty Baroness album.

^^^

"almost done w/first disc"

jesus, how many are there!?

2!

18 songs total but quite a few are long-ish

yeesh. you would think THEY were blind guardian. i wish all these metal bands turning into classic rock bands were more...classic.

hey are the ppl who like this really fucking w/disc 2?

on initial listen, dudes voice just does not work for what they are trying to do at all.

is it a good thing or a bad thing that I didn't impulse buy this in the record store today

i can't tell if you would like it? i think you might?

ftr I didn't buy it because I hated the cover

man disc 2 is a slog! first thing i'm really feeling is the 2nd half of song SIX

omg I wish I hadn't read the word "Nickelback" on this thread because that's basically all I can think of now that track 2 has started

i woke up around track 8

stretchmarker is kind of a nice quiet little instrumental so far....totally The New Year/Bedhead/cadane bros vibe

this is pleasant and all but I don't think I need to own this

disc 1 is definitely the stronger of the two

so far "Green Theme" is my favorite track

am I gonna end up being the weirdo who likes disc 2 more than disc 1?

entirely possible.

I agree wholeheartedly with your prior comment:

this is pleasant and all but I don't think I need to own this

am I gonna end up being the weirdo who likes disc 2 more than disc 1?

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:37 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, if you like falling asleep

i already pre-ordered the vinyl but its not worth $40 + $26 shipping from relapse that its cost me. Certainly not top 10 album of year material, but the good tracks are really good.

for whatever reason, I am digging the moody atmospheric stuff much, much more than the "Nickelback covers Alice In Chains" stuff on disc 1

When you realize it's a bit "Nickelback covers The Decembrists" you might not dig it as much.

i already pre-ordered the vinyl but its not worth $40 + $26 shipping from relapse that its cost me. Certainly not top 10 album of year material, but the good tracks are really good.

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 3:47 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's obviously worth that to you, because that's what you paid for it.

hey are the ppl who like this really fucking w/disc 2?
--call all destroyer

o/

Green > Yellow > Red > Blue

When you realize it's a bit "Nickelback covers The Decembrists" you might not dig it as much.

u suck

When you realize it's a bit "Nickelback covers The Decembrists" you might not dig it as much.

this the best sickest burn

holy shit 66 dollars for a baroness. you could buy like 33 saxon records for that money.

eddie trunk from that metal show really likes saxon but not as much as UFO...don't get him started about UFO!

also one time there was a stump the trunk question about rush's fear trilogy (witch hunt, the weapon, and the enemy within) and he didn't know it and the guy was like "you know, like witch hunt from moving pictures" and eddie got sort of offended that anyone would think he liked rush after they got into synthesizers!

i wonder if the guy who owns relapse rolls around nude on $20s or $50s

not really. it would still cost $20 to ship an lp to the uk
xp

Their new drummer is very...demonstrative

Listened to this yesterday, and again this morning. I'm liking it a lot more than I did when I streamed half the promo a month or so ago. There are a couple of moments that are blatantly stolen from other bands - there's one riff that's pure Mastodon, and another that's total 70s Pink Floyd - but they're not the main riffs of songs, they just pop up for a second and then disappear again, which is weird and kinda great.

I thought it was interesting that they streamed one track from the album on each of 10 different websites this week - felt bad for Rolling Stone Australia, who got to premiere the 17-second funny-voice outro.

the chord progression in the chorus of "shock me" is just catnip for me, the way it never stops moving

Time has been kind to this album.

purple made me go back to this a lot and yeah, it's so good

This revive brought to you by wondering when the hell they're gonna announce The Other Black Album or whatever, those rehearsal videos from awhile back were exciting.

oh, nevermind. from June:

the next Baroness album has been written and the band has tracked in the studio. Baizley wouldn’t give up too much information, other than to say that Baroness are in the mixing/mastering process and the new record will break from tradition, not being named for a color.

They haven't made a bad album yet. (I don't really like their early EPs much.)

Y&G turns 10 this weekend. I wrote about it for Stereogum.