Redd Kross

Redd Kross (2024)

John Gentile

Redd Kross appears to be the culmination of Redd Kross. Obviously, the cover winks to the Beatles, a major influence on the band. But, there are nods and thumbsnaps to all of the bands DNA - “Cancion Enojada” has a Kiss style guitar slam. “Good Times Propaganda band” shares a little faux-innocent cynicism with the Kinks (and maybe some Sgt. Pepper mixed in, too). The mega hitter, “I’ll take tour word for it,” would be on Cheap Tricks’s greatest hits if Cheap Trick recorded it. “Back of the Cave” even has a little bit of soaring Boston style guitar. And the band’s earliest punk background has residue on pretty much every tune here.

But, despite the fact that Redd Kross challenges to spot the homage- Is “Lay Down and Die” a slight wink to early Alice Cooper or am I seeing things…-Redd Kross isn’t so much a revue as it is Redd Kross assuming their final form: a poppy rock band that pulls from glam and junk shop and metal and power pop and folk and psyche but isn’t actually any of those things. Indeed, Redd Kross is uniquely Redd Kross-ian and finds the band at their timeless peak, as opposed to earlier iterations of the band that were deliberately out-of-time. When they were psyche-pop in the late ‘80s, the band seemed to be specifically utilizing old genres to make a commentary on the current ones. When they went weirdo pop in the 90s, it was in the face of grunge when everyone was so. Serious. All. the. Time. Even with their fantastic last two albums, they seemed to lean on high powered glam ala Slade.

But here, Redd Kross is JUST Redd Kross. That is, they're not trying to prove anything or comment on the outside world. Rather, they seem fully comfortable with themselves which allows them to look inward. Sure, there are classic style love songs here- “I’ll take your word for it” is a masterpiece. But, there are also cosmic questions slipped in between the kisses. “The main attraction” opens with a paean to the expanding universe itself. There is also some classic Jeff McDonald weirdness. “Stuff” is about having too much stuff… or is it?

Of course, at the core of everything is the band’s pop glam perfection. These songs are catchy and bright, except when they decide to get word or take a detour. Between the two discs, there is a lot to take in and trek through, which again calls back to how far Redd Kross has journeyed.

There’s a quote often attributed to Michelangelo that the statue is already in the granite, he just chops away the extra pieces. You’d think that by channeling so many sources, Redd Kross would become a patchwork of pieces. But the opposite is true here. I’d say for the first time ever, they used to the tools forged by Beatles, Cheap Trick, Black Flag, Kinks, Donovan, and many others to chip off extraneous pieces only to find the true Redd Kross underneath the facade of influence, reaction, and pressure.