Baroness - Gold & Gray (2019)

My guess is a single CD, with the first half of the tracklisting being Gold and the second half being Gray.

Acc to iTunes it's an hour long. Six segue length tunes.

I suspected based on the fuzz that this was another Fridmann production, and apparently that's confirmed.

Fridmann's one of those guys where I merely tolerate his productions rather than like them - this includes Flaming Lips records, btw. The production was quite probably my least favourite thing about the last one.

I sense a Hawkwind vibe which is fine by me.

oh man, looking forward to this.

Oooh Baroness could stand to get a bit more Hawkwind xp

They’re playing with Deafheaven a few blocks from my place in an hour, and it sold out before I heard about the show.

i am really surprised by how much i like this, i wouldnt have expected this to be my thing at all but it manages to hit the sweet spot of 'heavy music without any of the usual things i dislike'. guess i'll have to check out their previous albums

Gorgeous cover. I thought the song was rather rote, but only listened once on my laptop speakers.

Going to see them in a couple weeks. Wasn’t a big fan of the last couple albums but super stoked to see them live.

Another new song. I've already pre-ordered the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3n8RBaUMpc

glad to hear Sebastian still has absolutely no chill

I am interviewing them tonight outside of DC so I have listened to the album quite a bit the last few days.

Observations: Overall more direct and less proggy even if the first two songs released are probably the most "progressive rock" sounding songs on the album. A handful of ballads that are quite intimate and sparse. A bunch of short interludes and instrumentals contribute to solid album pacing - you get the feeling that was something they made a priority. I hear a bit of a New Wave/Post-Punk vibe especially with regard to rhythms (and Nick's bass is really prominent and interesting throughout the disc.

I like it overall and it has grown on me with each listen. Will be interesting to see how much new stuff they do. Aside from seeing them tonight they're also playing the Decibel Beer 7 metal Fest this weekend that I will be attending.

sounds good to me. any vocal contributions from Gina?

"Front Towards Enemy" is on the new, and streamable, Adult Swim metal comp

https://www.adultswim.com/music/metal-swim-2/

and another one, 'Throw Me an Anchor," mix sounds a little squashed to me but some nice flourishes here and there

https://youtu.be/KcWFiTJ23Vo

...and the whole shebang is streaming at NPR

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/10/729219388/first-listen-baroness-gold-grey

well the first track is awesome

these interludes are very This Mortal Coil so far!

streaming compression does this record no favors but i love it so much so far

these interludes are very This Mortal Coil so far!

― Simon H., Monday, June 10, 2019 8:07 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow they're all sick as hell

i never get to say "the songs on this record are wonderful but man, the interludes!"

this dreamy middle section just goes and goes!

I really love this band but the production is so terrible it holds me at arm's length

anyone own any of these on vinyl? curious how those pressings sound

I have Purple on LP and I like how it sounds, but I'm far from an audiophile so maybe not the best reference point?

it's not really audiophile issues to me it's just this thin, compressed flat aspect that bums me out on a lot of commercial modern hard rock stuff

sometimes the vinyl is better because it's mastered differently and you can't push the format as hard

I liked my first playthrough of this but I'd really like to see them synthesize their experimental/prog and rawk tendencies more on the next one, rather than keeping them mostly shunted over to the interludes and such

That's all well and good but if they can manage to write a hit while tying together those aspects of the band with some accessibility, I'm all for it.

that's sort of what I was trying to say!

Where are you guys listening to this?

NPR link a lil upthread

Ah, thanks!

Jesus, don’t know how I missed that

Half of this album sounds like Baizley singing while playing the instrumental tracks back through a flip phone. I like it, but holy shit is it blown-out sounding.

I fell in love with Blue Record hard when it came out. Nothing since has really clicked until this. Similar to what Mastodon has been getting at in recent albums, they've hit a really fun balance of accessible hard rock and proggy elements. I think I love it. "Tourniquet" is one of my favorite tracks they've ever put out. The production is blown out sounding but it's consistent so didn't really bother me.

The love for Blue Record has always confused me. I always think of it as a noticeable step down from Red (and I listened to it on Tuesday, so it's not like these are foggy memories). As of today, I'd rank 'em like this:

Red > Yellow & Green > Gold & Grey > Purple > Blue >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> First & Second

i cannot remember everything on blue but "jake leg" is a dope song

Wow. That's shocking to me. i definitely need to go back and give Red another play. Blue was where I heard about them and to this day I love it start to finish. Got me into that whole scene at the time too of Kylesa, Black Tusk etc. I do think my interest was fading pretty hard by the time Purple came out but this has definitely been clicking. Loving the addition of Gina Gleason too. The guitar interplay on this thing is great.
Blue>Gold & Grey>Red>Yellow & Green>Purple

I loved Purple but hated the production on that the same way it sounds like I'm going to hate the production on this one. I'd love to hear Purple engineered by Steve Albini or someone influenced by him.

“I’m already gone” sounds like a country song

this is already sounding better/more assured on repeat listens. "Tourniquet" is massive, sort of a vintage Pumpkins vibe.

also I just noticed that it's being released on LP with an etched side, which is wonderful because despite the title it's clearly delineated in thirds

i gotta spend more time with the new one but i think my ranking of the records is reverse-chronological

After only one listen, the bass playing really stood out to me. The production didn’t actually bother me that much.

Yeah, I've listened to the album about four times now and the production actually serves the music really well. It's only blown out to, like, Guitar Wolf levels on one or two tracks, and the shifts in sound really complement the music, which is also the most wide-ranging they've ever made. It's really, really good.

LP just arrived

I interviewed John and Seb for Invisible Oranges and the bulk of the conversation was about the new album so maybe some in the thread might get something out of it.

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/baroness-interview-2019

great interview, loved the insights into the bass playing on the various records

Well, the interludes are quite good. I'm not sold on the songs themselves, which come off as underpowered, but that may change once I listen to it again.

There was some stuff on this album that really took me by surprise, and other stuff that was cheesy as all get out. It was all pretty cool, though, and the bass playing is awesome.

I really love "Pale Sun," what a cool closer

Occasional ILM poster Kim Kelly's Pitchfork review does a good job of pointing out the many positive things about the album.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/baroness-gold-and-grey/

2015’s Grammy-nominated Purple presented a band who had quite literally been through hell

I liked the review, but wish this line dropped "quite literally."

Heathen.

I was literally just thinking that

I love this record, unreservedly. It helps that a) I braced myself for much worse production, and b) I've been going through some real life shit that helps me relate to some of the lyrics way more than I'd like to right now.

what editor would let that "quite literally" thing publish?

Right? Fucking puzzling

You think Pitchfork editors would even understand why that’s bad until the third time you explained it to them?

It’s not a very well written review in general. KK’s heart is in her political writing/reporting now (and good for her; she’s sharp as hell and I’d rather read her on labor issues than metal any day).

this record took a while to reach me bc there are so many ideas per song but "throw me an anchor" is so fucking badass

I liked my first playthrough of this but I'd really like to see them synthesize their experimental/prog and rawk tendencies more on the next one, rather than keeping them mostly shunted over to the interludes and such

― Simon H., Monday, June 10, 2019 9:24 AM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm, and maybe why i don't like this quite as much as purple but still think it rules. it feels like it's still forming. which is totally fine, it's awesome to hear the forming

It might help if Baizley kept the same dang lineup for another cycle.

They released a livestreamed concert last night through http://nugs.tv; I've never seen them live and love this album/this incarnation of the band, so I dropped the $15. I'm about halfway through and it's really good. It's the new album in full, plus some additional songs at the end (it's 75 minutes all together). My rental fee lets me watch it all weekend.

picked this up earlier this week.
tis a great album, and a perfect addition to their 'colours' catalogue.
however, this is not a good headphone album for those of us who enjoy the cd format.

Agreed on both points. Content wise, it is a fantastic album and, were the production better, it might just be my favorite one of theirs overall - but that production was so disappointing.