Okay, time to pull back the journalist curtain a little bit: every now and then an album comes along that can reinvigorate your faith in music and you want to shout about it from the rooftops. Such is the case with the third album from Savannah, Georgia's Baroness. Following on from 2007's 'Red' and 2009's 'Blue', 'Yellow & Green', the end result of three long years of touring, writing and recording, isn't officially released until July but to be honest we couldn't wait any longer.
A collection of eighteen songs split over two discs (the deluxe version of the CD and LP sets come housed in a heavy duty twenty eight page hard back book set featuring the inimitable art of frontman John Baizley), the creative leap between 'Blue' and 'Yellow & Green' is nothing short of astounding. In a recent interview, Baizley was quoted as saying “The record's got a much broader palette of songs. There are some moments where we're sticking to some of the foundations we've laid down and others where it's a brand new type of song for us.” He wasn't kidding.
Reuniting with 'Blue' co-producer John Congleton and tracking in Hoboken and Congleton's own Elmwood Studio in Dallas after sharing stages with the likes of Metallica, Deftones and Mastodon, it's clear that some of the stadium-shattering scope of these bands has either rubbed off on Baroness or simply woke something that was previously slumbering. Indeed, perhaps the best comparison to 'Yellow & Green' would be one of Mastodon's later works, not in terms of sound but rather reach. Like Brann Dailor's lot, Baroness have crafted music that can legitimately be called 'new rock music'. There's no retreads or fumble-handed 'homages' here: instead, much like Mastodon's 'The Hunter', 'Yellow & Green' captures lightning in a bottle.
Setting out its stall with 'Yellow Theme' and the deft pummelling of 'Take My Bones Away', 'Yellow & Green' flits from the delicate to the decimating throughout its runtime, often managing the neat feat of both within the same song, such as the choral, near-a capella vocals on the coda of 'Twinkler', married perfectly with an ominous buzzing that makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand rigid, or the bass-led swagger of 'Cocainium'. Elsewhere, 'Green Theme' kicks in with all of the rock majesty of Queen, while 'Mtns. (The Crown & Anchor)' combines a glacial, ethereal tone with fleet-fingered fretwork, sounding like Minus The Bear remixing the best cuts from 'Red'.
Ending with 'If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry', a song that eschews simple structure and heads more into the territory of musical scores usually held by the likes of Clint Mansell. Indeed, you can almost imagine the majority of 'Yellow & Green' providing the aural accompaniment to the latest Darren Aronofsky flick.
Bold, uncompromising, effecting and involving, 'Yellow & Green' is everything a rock album should be-and more.


Catch Baroness on tour this week, starting today in Birmingham!

July
9 Birmingham Academy 3
10 Glasgow Stereo
11 Manchester Moho Live
12 London Camden Barfly

August
13 Sheffield Corporation
14 Bristol The Fleece
15 Southampton Talking Heads