Redd Kross ★★★★
Redd Kross
IN THE RED. CD/DL/LP
Following their 2023 documentary film, the McDonald brothers’ melody-rich, 18-song splurge.
Forty-five years since they crashed the LA punk scene when singer-guitarist Jeff McDonald was 15 and bassist Steve just 11, Redd Kross are celebrating with a rock-doc, a memoir and this confidently self-titled double-LP – only their seventh since 1982’s snotty Born Innocent. For 2019’s Beyond The Door, Steve’s partner-inrhythm in latter-day Melvins, Dale Crover, occupied the drum stool; this time, they hired Josh Klinghoffer, ex-guitarist with Red Hot Chili Peppers, who also produced. Here, Candy Coloured Catastrophe and the cosmically contemplative The Main Attraction crank up a punk psychedelia akin to Strawberries-era Damned, while What’s In It For You and Terrible Band (a hilarious take-down of insane frontmen) revisit RK’s familiar Beatles-gonew wave powerpop. Both energy and melodies hold strong throughout, and, suitably topped off with Ballad Of Mott-style self-chronicling finale Born Innocent, Redd Kross is these Angelenos’ defining epic.