The two halves, while somewhat different (Yellow is primarily psychedelic pop-rock, while Green is primarily indie folk), suffer from many of the same problems. The biggest issue is the lack of energy or uniqueness put into their songs. Almost every song bleeds into each other with a lack of interesting riffs or melodies that drove Baroness in the past. Giving guitarist Pete Adams so little to do is seriously a crime. He sits back playing boring-ass two-chord acoustic riffs while his excellent guitar playing is being completely underutilized. The few moments he gets to let loose ( end of "Little Things", "Cocanium", beginning of " The Line Between") are some of the best moments of the record, but they are far too few and far between to break up the monotony of this record. Vocalist/ rhythm guitarist John Baizley kind of drones through everything with none of the emotion that he had in the past. He becomes really monotonous and seems like he is just going through the motions the whole time. It also bothered me that neither half flowed together. In the past, the interludes and the like made Baroness's albums flow so much better and it gave them this really special and cool cohesive feeling. The fact that both albums lacked songs that tied together really bugged me. It was a trademark of Baroness and the fact that it's gone made me dislike the new material even more. The last thing that I really didn't like here was the Green half of the album. Not that I love Yellow, but at least that half had a few cool parts to it. Green is just straight-up awful. The style of folk that is played just fails on every level. The sound is 100% aimed at hipsters and I thought I was listening to The Antlers or the Fleet Foxes or another one of those too cool for school, ironic bands. It makes me really sad that Baroness made something that sounded like this, it's honestly embarrassing ("Foolsong and "Collapse" especially). Baizley doesn't have the capacity as a vocalist to handle this type of stuff (The monotone stuff I mentioned earlier applies here even harder). The dude isn't Tommy Rodgers or Jesse Leach, he can't sing that well. His voice is best suited for progressive/sludge metal and it's not really that good if you take him out of his comfort zone and the Green half of this album hammers that point home. You don't see bands like Kylesa or Black Tusk trying to making folk songs and Baroness shouldn't either. The album's one redeeming track comes near the end of the Yellow half with "Sea Lungs". "Sea Lungs" is the only song that is good all the way through on the whole album and it sound like it could've have been either of the older albums. The riff is actually cool and Baizley's vocals are up to par unlike the rest of the album. It's a pity that is the only song I will find myself revisiting on a regular basis.
Yellow & Green is a bloated, lifeless double album that is about as interesting as watching paint dry. The spark and creativity that ran rampant through the rest of their material is thrown to the wayside in favor of a sound that is done by dozens of hipster alt-rock/folk bands. It's fine they were done with metal and wanted to change their sound. I have no problem with bands changing their sound, Hell I actually enjoy it as long as the quality of the music stays in tact, but that's not the case at all with Baroness. It almost seems like they deliberately tried to write a non-metal album and kind of just threw it together with little to no effort in the songwriting department. There were many times during both albums where I felt like I wasn't hearing the finished product and this was just a early, bare-bones demo. It kills me to see a band that I've sung the praises of for so long make an album that I dislike so much. If this is the new permanent direction for Baroness, I'm done with them for good. What really gets me even more than the music especially is how ridiculous some Baroness fans have been treating fans that don't enjoy the new material. I went with an open mind and I just happen to really not like the record. I am not trashing Baroness for not being heavy anymore (They weren't that heavy to begin with), I am trashing them because they aren't making good music anymore. They went from being such a creative force to writing some of the most dull, uninspired music I've heard in years. Sorry Baroness, I just can't back your new sound. This kills me to say, but Yellow & Green is worst album I've heard so far in 2012 by far and is a colossal letdown that will probably not be matched any time soon.
Yellow: 2/5 Stars
Green: 1/5 Stars
Overall: 1.5/5 Stars
Standout Track
1.Sea Lungs
No comments:
Post a Comment