Redd Kross - Neurotica (2022) Hi-Res

Whether Neurotica is where Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and The Replacements' Paul Westerberg got the idea that it was cool to take punk rock into poppier territory is still up for debate. But there's no question that the second album by the brothers McDonald is a toothsome, energetic mashup of guitar crunch and accessible melodic turns that embodied a new sound when it appeared in 1987. With Hawthorne, California, teenagers Jeff on guitar and vocals and Steven on bass out front, they began as The Tourists in 1978, before changing their name to Red Cross a year later. A lawsuit from the actual humanitarian organization forced a name change to Redd Kross which is what appeared on their 1982 debut Born Innocent, recorded before they were even out of high school. According to their official bio, "The McDonalds lived for nothing but Saturday morning cartoons, sugary cereals, bubblegum pop singles and Beach Boys LPs, Partridge Family TV specials, and the bombastic arena-rock guitars of acts like KISS and Cheap Trick." The brothers' myriad influences (and love of sudden stylistic leaps) are put to good use on Neurotica from the first notes thanks in part to the production chops of Tommy Erdelyi aka Tommy Ramone, whose influence can be heard on the Ramone-esque "Frosted Flake."

The Kinks-like "Play My Song" is buoyed by a '60s rhythmic boppiness. The brothers' love of pop culture infuses the lyrics of the driving "Janus, Jeanie and George Harrison" whose closing chorus lines date the tune, referring to Barbara Eden's titular character from I Dream of Jeannie: "On a boat with Janus, Jeanie, and George Harrison/ When Jesus Christ Superstar was crucified/ The Beatles were still making noise." The volume comes down for the strummy, sunny interlude "Love is You" before they shift to a higher gear in the brief, frantic metal of "Pink Piece of Peace." One of the band's finest all-time performances, one that belies their poppy liquid center, "It's The Little Things" is unabashed sugary pop brilliance. That's followed by this album's best-known track, "Peach Kelli Pop" which has a whiff of KISS' the arena rock strut mixed with the band's trademark exuberance—"Let's go to the Troubadour/ Pretend we're seeing stars/ Man, we're cruising Hollywood/ Do you get the joke? (Ha-hah-ha)/ Laughing at all the assholes at the Rainbow/ Flying so high on coke/ What a joke—wooh!" A demo version of the track, part of the dozen unreleased works-in-progress added to this 35th anniversary edition, is remarkably close to the finished product. While the snap's not yet there, the guitar solo is. Vivacious music-making fuses nostalgia to fearless futurity; Neurotica hasn't aged a day.