Crazy Crazy World. (Phaseshifter - Redd Kross)

Member Name: kylecoare

Product:	Phaseshifter - Redd Kross
Date:	14/12/03 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Harder than previous album, great poppy rock tunes

Disadvantages: Unknown to most music fans.

REDD KROSS - PHASESHIFTER
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Redd Kross are one of those bands that if the right people heard would be top of the charts with every release, their music is an interesting blend of 60's pop, hard rock and punk, with the bands own sound.

The band first formed in 1979, when two brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, aged 13 and 9 respectively, decided that they wanted to records the perfect rock album.

Their influences ranged from Kiss, David Bowie and the Beatles to the Ramones and other punk bands of that era, whilst also taking in influences from more obscure places like the Partridge family and the Osmonds.

Over the years the band has gained many fans in the music business, with fans ranging from members of Sonic Youth and Stone Temple Pilots to Def Leppard and the Wildhearts, with many others also claiming this band as an influence, which is quite a surprise as the band is still unknown to a lot of music fans.

Up until the early 90's, the band was mostly known for its punky pop tunes, with only a few hints at what was to come.
Then in 1990, with the release of album Third Eye, which I've reviewed on this site previously, the band started top get noticed a bit more, and also the style of music became a bit more widespread, rather than just being a punk album, this was a pop album with lots of different styles.

Third Eye took the band away from their punky roots a little and showed the strong musical talent that the two brothers and their backing musicians possessed, but even that album didn't show what was to come with the release of Phaseshifter.

Over the years the band has had many different band members, with only the two brothers staying throughout, the band had members of Bad Religion and Pearl Jam making their names in this band previous to joining the bigger bands.

After this album the two brothers went on to record another Redd Kross album , Sh
ow World, and to appear in many side projects and movies.
With possibly the most famous side project being as backing band for comedian Jack Black's Tenacious D band.

BAND MEMBERS
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Jeff McDonald - Vocals and Guitar.
Steven McDonald - Bass and Vocals.
Brian Reitzell - Drums and Percussion.
Edward Kurdziel - Guitar.
Gere Fennelly - Piano, Organ and Mellotron.

THE ALBUM
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The album consists of 12 songs, and comes in at a nice 44 minutes.


--TRACK ONE - JIMMY'S FANTASY--

Possibly one of the best songs ever written, which has been said by many people.
It opens with a slow acoustic sounding guitar and some softly sung vocals over the top, before ripping into a fantastic powerful riff, which you wont be able to stop yourself from jumping around to, it is just one of the all time greats.
The vocals are all quite poppy sounding, with some nice harmonies on the brilliant chorus.

--TRACK TWO - LADY IN THE FRONT ROW--

This song takes all of the bands Beatles influences and put them into a rock tune.
With the tune sounding like an harder Beatles song, with a more rocking guitar orientated sound.

The tune opens with a guitar picking a simple but nice tune, then in come the louder electric guitars to cover this sound.
The vocals are all very Beatles-esq, with some great harmonies from the two brothers.
Behind the main sound of the guitars is Steves great bass playing, which when mixed with the rest of the tune brings a quite heavy sound to the original sound of the 60's

--TRACK THREE - MONOLITH--

The third song takes us into power ballad territory, with the band showing that they haven't lost any of the slower pop sounds that they showed us on previous album, Third Eye.
Starting out quite simple, this tune soon builds up in almost epic standards, with a very nice arms in the air ending to the
song.

The music is all fuzzy guitars and slowly played drums, with some nicely picked notes behind all of this, but it has a nice melody and the sort of pop sound that almost everyone would like.

--TRACK FOUR - CRAZY WORLD--

This is a cover of an old girl punk band's song, which featured in an advertisement for Mars bars a few years back.
Its a slow riff heavy tune, with Jeff's vocals sounding quite hard and rocking.
The music follows a fairly simple slow guitar riff, with some nice solo's played over the top.
The drums come in at all the right times, and in the end it sounds like a great tune, with everything in its right place.

--TRACK FIVE - DUMB ANGEL--

This song shows the band on a faster tempo track, with a nicely played piano piece by Gere Fennelly, played just over a set of loud fuzzy guitars,bass and drums.
The tune is pretty simple, but quite catchy.
Where is song really hits its peaks is the vocals, which are top notch throughout, bringing memories of John Lennon and many other rock greats.

--TRACK SIX - HUGE WONDER--

Another slow riff filled tune, with Jeff again showing his more shouty vocals, which although they are a bit shouty still sound very poppy.
This song feels a little bit like a filler, as it sounds a little too similar to other tracks on the album, but it is still nice, and you wouldn't need to skip it.

The music is quite good, with a simple slow riff and some nicely placed picked notes.
The drums hold this all together brilliantly, which is a party that is normally overlooked in a good song.

--TRACK SEVEN - VISIONARY--

Possibly the bands best known song, although most will still not have heard it, this received a fair bit of airplay when the album was released.
Opening with another great rocking riff, which will stick in your brain like peanut butter.
The song features probably the best chorus on the
album, which is very hard to stop yourself singing along to.

Halfway through the song takes in an almost acoustic bit before it kicks back into the rocking groove of the original riff.

--TRACK EIGHT - PAY FOR LOVE--

This opens with an intro which screams out that its gonna be a fast paced rock tune, so its quite surprising when this soon leads to a fairly slow pop ballad type song.
With the vocals showing their absolute best, these are so heartfelt and contain so much feeling, which is something which seems lacking in todays manufactured pop acts.

The music follows a fairly simple tune, with some well played piano and guitar forming the main sounds, although the drums and bass still add a lot to the tune.

--TRACK NINE - MS. LADY EVANS--

This opens with a very quirky little guitar tune, which will lodge itself into your brain for many hours to come.
an almost punk tune, with quite a minimalist sound, with only a guitar and drums, with bass playing a small part, this really leaves it open for the vocals, which again don't fail.

--TRACK TEN - ONLY A GIRL--

This is the sort of tune that Crowded House were good at, with a mid tempo pace and some nice lyrics.
The music has the sound of an late 60's pop band, whilst adding a few electric guitar licks here and there.
The drums again play a very important part in keeping this tune together, with some very well placed beats making the tune better than it would have been.

--TRACK ELEVEN - SARAGON--

This song sounds like nothing else on the album, with a very minimal sound, almost like a demo, but that doesn't mean its bad, in fact it is very catchy.
With the music being mainly based on the sound of some shakers over the vocals, you have some electric guitars placed way back in the tune, which just bring themselves to the edge of the song.
The vocals are again reminiscent of John Lennon on more rocking m
oments, and add a great deal to a tune which otherwise would have been left on the cutting floor.

--TRACK TWELVE - AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL--

This song is a lot like the rock n roll numbers from the late 50's, with a punk sound to them.
Whilst not a bad song, it really doesn't end the album on the high that i was hoping for.
The vocals are all punky shouty sounding, and dont show this band to its full potential at all, which is a shame, but one bad song out of twelve isn't bad at all.


OVERALL
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So would I Recommend this?
I would, it has a great mixture of pop rock and punk, which almost everyone will like, even my mum likes some of the tunes on this album.

It really is a classic album, which sadly didn't get noticed by the right people.

For more information on Redd Kross and their numerous side projects, you should visit their home page, you might find yourself surprised at who they have worked with.

www.reddkross.com

Thanks for reading.

Kyle

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