Baroness – Yellow & Green
Although a double album format is somewhat antiquated, the impetus behind splitting up Yellow & Green is artistic. Both albums clock in at 75 minutes which could fit on one disc, so there is a feeling of two complete albums.
Just as there was a big musical leap between their EPs and Red Album, this is very different from Blue Record. Whereas I feel their first two albums play much much better in their entirety, the new material structurally has a lot more of a pop format and can stand on their own a lot better.
It’s definitely not as heavy as previous albums. It’s a little surprising in how much mellower it gets at points, but makes sense in the natural progression of the band’s catalog. Each release has been less heavy than the previous.
I’m pretty mixed on it overall. I’d say that I probably find I enjoy more of it than not, and a lot more has grown on me over the past month. I really like quite a few of the songs and find some of it to be the band’s strongest work.
However, a lot of the songs are lyrically-centered. I know most people are really into that, but in my old age, I generally don’t care what singers have to say. Not that the lyrics are bad, but I’m more concerned with music.But the music is good, and there is some really cool guitar work. Sonically, there’s a lot of unique tonal stuff going on that makes even the more basic songs pretty interesting.
Yellow & Green will be released via Relapse Records on July 17th.
