{"id":834,"date":"2012-07-23T05:42:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T10:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2012-07-23T05:42:41","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T10:42:41","slug":"album-review-redd-kross-researching-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/23\/album-review-redd-kross-researching-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Redd Kross &#8211; Researching the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/redd_kross_researching_the_blues.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" width=\"280\" hspace=\"10\" \/>Leave it to the bratty (though now fortyish-plus) McDonald brothers to title an album <em>Researching the Blues<\/em>. Anyone familiar with their musical approach \u2013 perhaps best described as pop-punk yet having nearly nothing in common with all the crappy bands that claim that title. There may not be anything here that&#8217;s quite as candyfloss-accessible as \u201cBubblegum Factory,\u201d but it&#8217;s a solid album that still beats most of what&#8217;s out there in terms of entertainment value. The title track&#8217;s insistent verses have an up-close production value that is reminiscent of some of the group\u2019s earliest work, but when the chorus kicks in, that <em>Phase Shifter<\/em> arena-rock vibe comes roaring back in a big way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in\">The characteristic that has always set <strong>Redd Kross<\/strong> apart from other superficially-similar bands is a knack for crafting memorable melodies, and wrapping them in arrangements full of spikes and barbed-wire. Those qualities are in ample supply here, from the sha-la-la backing vocals on \u201cStay Away from Downtown\u201d to the swing and swagger of \u201cUglier.\u201d  The smart-ass detachment of the old days is dialed back a bit in favor of a more, shall we say, commercial attitude, but there&#8217;s plenty here to delight those who loved the group&#8217;s earlier work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\" class=\"body\">Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\" valign=\"middle\" border=\"0\" height=\"18\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"18\" hspace=\"1\" \/> Twitter<\/a> and get notified<br \/>\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leave it to the bratty (though now fortyish-plus) McDonald brothers to title an album Researching the Blues. Anyone familiar with their musical approach \u2013 perhaps best described as pop-punk yet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}