Baroness

Blue Record

You know the next one’s going to be yellow | Relapse

Unlike many of their southeastern peers, Baroness haven’t bothered to come out with their own jaw-dropper like Meanderthal, Static Tensions or Leviathan, instead offering very subtle changes throughout First, Second, A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk and 2007’s much-lauded The Red Album. And that suits them perfectly, as the Savannah band has taken their own sweet time cultivating that sound, eventually creating a niche of their own that somehow, almost inexplicably, straddles metal, indie and mainstream rock all at once.

That Blue Record continues to stay the course musically is no surprise, but what does catch us off-guard is just how confident the band is now. While thematically, the album might not be any different from the crimson debut, the adornments lend its azure sibling a florid quality that finally sees the music living up to John Baizley’s gorgeous artwork. With producer John Congleton, the band paints from a much richer palette than before, whether it’s dreamy Floydian interludes, twin guitar solos more Thin Lizzy than Mastodon (“The Sweetest Curse”), flashes of Fugazi-style atonality (“Swollen and Halo”) or acoustic touches (“Steel That Sleeps the Eye”) that will have snarky hipsters mouthing incredulously, “Fleet Foxes?!” while prog nerds will muse approvingly, “The Moody Blues.” For all the frills, though, “Jake Leg,” “A Horse Called Golgotha” and the spectacular “The Gnashing” form the real heart of the record, the tracks bruising yet accessible, bold yet understated, the sound of a band so on top of its game that to show off would be pointless. They had us ages ago.

—Adrien Begrand

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