Take me on a tour of the bubblegum factory. (Third Eye - Redd Kross)

Member Name: kylecoare

Product:	Third Eye - Redd Kross
Date:	06/12/03 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some classic pop rock moments, great vocals, 60's influence

Disadvantages: unknown band

REDD KROSS - THIRD EYE
++++++++++++++++++++++

Redd Kross are one of those bands, which all the music press loves, every musician wants to play with them, and any one that has heard their music instantly loves them.
So its quite a suprise that they are very unknown and their records never sell that many.

Forming way back in 1979, The main members of this band are two brothers, Jeff and Steve Mcdonald, when they first formed these were only 8 years and 14 years old respectively.
And suprisingly for their age they were very well liked, in fact playing gigs with some of the top bands of the time.
Originally known as Red Cross, but due to legal reasons they had to change this.

Their style of music is very difficult to pigeon hole, as it takes in so many different styles and genres. But if you think of the Beatles crossed with Kiss and mixing a nice dash of Psycadelica then you have a very basic recipe for Redd Kross.

Their music has influenced many artists over the years, including the Stone Temple Pilots, Faith No More and Sonic Youth.
Jeff and Steve have also been busy as the backing band for Tenacious D.

Previous albums by the band had a very punky edge to them and although they were all very good, it wasnt until this was released in 1990 when they really started to hit their peak.

BAND MEMBERS
^^^^^^^^^^^^

The band members on this album were

JEFF MCDONALD - VOCALS / GUITAR
STEVEN MCDONALD - BASS / VOCALS
ROBERT HECKER - GUITAR / VOCALS

There were also a fair few session musicians involved as well.


THE ALBUM
^^^^^^^^^

----TRACK 1 - THE FAITH HEALER----

OPening with a fairly nice guitar intro, this is a nice start to the album, a quiet slice of pop rock brilliance, with a nice jangley guitar sound holding the track together and a simple but effective drum beat backing up the sound.
But where this track really holds it
s own is in the brothers vocals, which have great harmonies and mix really well with each other.
The Chorus is more up tempo than the rest of the track with a nice pop sound to it.

"Did you feel the jolt shoot through your soul, no more broken hearts or empty holes, hands that flow the light of love are worth their tolls"

----TRACK 2 - ANNIE'S GONE----

This was classed by Kerrang magazine as the top song of 1990, and personally i would say it was one of the best for a few more years as well.
Again starting quite slowly, with some nice simple guitar playing which really lifts you up.
Then pretty soon it kicks into a great chorus, which really has that sing along quality and is very up lifting after the slow verses.
The vocals are quite downbeat and deep sounding, whilst still having a great pop rock edge to them.


----TRACK 3 - I DONT KNOW HOW TO BE YOUR FRIEND----

Starting with a kind of acoustic country type sound this is a slow number, this really is a song to wave your lighters in the air to!
It also shows some great vocal capabilities, with the singer showing a lot of emotion in his voice and it has an almost soothing quality to it.
This is a really nice tune, which again gets you singing and makes you feel good, what more can you ask from a song?

----TRACK 4 - SHONEN KNIFE----

A more rocking track next, this is named after a japanese rock band.
This has a great little riff backing it up and some fast drumming.
The vocals on the verses are sung quite fast and add another dimension to this album, then again we kick into another gorgeous chorus, with a group vocal backing up the main singer, Sounding like a mix of the Beatles and a can of red bull.

----TRACK 5 - BUBBLEGUM FACTORY----

The title says it all really, this is bubblegum pop at its best, sounding like something from the 60's this is stunning.
Probably my favourite son
g on the album, it really does make you happy.
With the female backing vocals and the hand claps, this is like being in the early days of goods pop music.
Reminds me of groups like The Monkees if they were making music in the 90's.

----TRACK 6 - WHERE I AM TODAY----

This has a nice jangly guitar riff running through the track, and some nice quick paced drumming.
Starting off quite slowly, this song builds up into quite a nice paced ending.
The song reminds me of early Wonderstuff, if they had been from America.
Another great pop tune. The vocals are really good, and have a very uplifting feel to them, they really make you smile.

----TRACK 7 - ZIRA(CALL OUT MY NAME)

This is a more rocking tune than the last, with a great little chuggy riff holding it all together, it is sadly one of the weaker tracks on the album, and sounds like it could have come from the soundtrack to a straight to video movie.
But it is still a good song, just not as nice as some of the other material on this album.
Again the chorus really makes this song, with a kind of shouty vocal and with a female back up vocalist it makes the song sound quite good.

----TRACK 8 - LOVE IS NOT LOVE----

A nice vocal opens this song, before the guitar and drums come in to back it up. This is another quite slow number, again holding its 60's influence right on its sleave.
A great song, which needs to be heard to be apreciated.

----TRACK 9 - 1976----

This opens with a nice fast paced bluesy riff, complete with wah wah guitar sounds.
This is a lot more poppy than some of the other songs, sounding quite a lot like Kiss or Cheap Trick, it has some interesting changes between vocalists.
And the music changes styles a fair few times during the course of the song, meaning that on first listen it can sound disjointed, but after 2 or 3 listens you will love this song.

----TRACK 10 - DEBBIE AND KI
M----

This song sends shivers down my spine, the vocals are fantastic.
Again the music is fairly sparse, it jangles along behind the vocals, but it really is just the singing that makes this such a great tune.
This starts quite slow again, but does build up towards a nice finish.

----TRACK 11 - ELEPHANT FLARES----

This is a great ending to the album, which blatently steals vocals from the Beatles "I am the walrus"
This song has a rocking chuggy guitar riff backing it up, but again you really need to hear the vocals to know how good this song is.
There are some great moments where the singer has an echo effect on his voice, and there are quite a lot of changes of style throughout this tune.
This is definately a song that you could listen to on repeat, it adds something new each time you hear it.
As with the whole of the album, it sounds even better through headphones as you get the full sound of the music.


OVERALL
^^^^^^^

Well as you would have guessed i like this album a bit!
It has a lot of really good moments which really make you feel good or want to sing along.
It is also a very difficult album to describe, as the music is quite unlike anything else around at the minute.

So why have i only given it four stars?
Well as good as this album is it doesent even touch the quality of the next album "PhaseShifter"

This may be fairly hard to obtain, as it was originally a limited edition, but i have heard of a rereleased version available, check on some of the online stores.

This is quite a slow album, but it is fairly instant and anyone that likes quality music would love this, the bands other albums are all very good, especially the two released after this record, Phaseshifter and Show World.

Thanks for reading.
Kyle

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