Album Of The Day- Baby Woodrose-Chasing Rainbows" (2007)

The Album Of The Day is "Chasing Rainbows"
by Baby Woodrose.



Review:

Baby Woodrose, with the release of Chasing Rainbows, continue to amaze the listener with well-crafted psych. "Chasing Rainbows" is very much a modern album ieven n that it displays classic 60's songwriting influences such as Love, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Doors and Group 1850. However upon closer inspection, Baby Woodrose is expanding upon the repertoire / format of the genre, through the unique qualities of their sound. The band possesses that "otherworldly" quality of time and space that all great psych groups inhabit.

"Someone to Love" starts the CD with a distorted guitar - organ introduction. A riff is developed and the rhythm section follows suit. The song follows a classic pattern of verse - chorus - verse. "Someone to Love" combined with "I'm Gonna Make You Mine", the second song, both have memorable choruses that leave an imprint on you along with those bouncy organ riffs, fuzzed out riffs and catchy vocals.

For the third song, "Let Yourself Go", the band - Lorenzo Woodrose (guitars, organs and vocals), Fuzz Daddy (drums and percussion) and The Moody Guru (bass and tempura) - get down with a heavier workout. The band really shines on this song: farfisa riffs, wah wah guitar leads and echoed vocals. A similar approach is taken later in the album with the title track "Chasing Rainbows". A real deep bass riff pulls the song together, leaving the guitar to spew distorted riffs and the drums to accent the proceedings. One aspect of both songs is the passionate vocal styling of Lorenzo Woodrose. Vocally, he has a voice that is emotionally charged and soulful.

One of the other great qualities of Chasing Rainbows is the softer moments throughout the album. A memorable presence is felt in several songs. "Lillith" has an unbeatable combination of folk inspired guitar accompanied by haunting pedal steel playing. "In Your Life" is sheer pop bliss. Raga percussion, sitar, bells and acoustic guitar create a backdrop for Lorenzo's sweet vocals. The drums are then introduced two thirds into the song along with distorted guitar.

"No More Darkness" is a tale of heartbreak filled with punk attitude. The background vocals are especially noteworthy. "No More Darkness" then segues into the soaring heights of "Dark Twin". The band's unique songwriting abilities, and ability to break away from convention, become evident on this track. The song "Dark Twin" feels almost like a song from the Middle Ages. Filled with a repetitive bass line, acoustic guitars, bells, organ and a drum march, the song is somber but yet beautiful in it's orchestration.

Baby Woodrose's fourth release is d a memorable CD that will warrant repeated listening over the years to come. "Chasing Rainbows" is an album that is filled with so much in terms of quality and effort placed on the songs ability to transcend the listener.

For me, it's one of 2007's best releases. (Arthur S.,i94Bar.com)

Track Listing:

01. Someone to Love
02. I'm Gonna Make You Mine
03. Let Yourself Go
04. Twilight Princess
05. Lilith
06. In Your Life
07. Chasing Rainbows
08. No More Darkness
09. Dark Twin
10. Renegade Soul
11. Madness of Your Own Making

Listen

MySpace
Bad Afro Records

New Baby Woodrose Material Available

Baby Woodrose – Coming Around Again/I Feel High 7”

The new Baby Woodrose 7” contains two exclusive songs only available on this fine piece of plastic. Both songs were recorded with the intention of being included on their recent album, Chasing Rainbows, but it never happened. Not because of the quality of the songs, they just did not seem to fit in. Main man Lorenzo Woodrose has this comment on “Coming Around Again”:


"`Coming Around Again` could have been a hit for anybody, except we ended up playing it a bit too fast and adding lots of over the top twangy surf guitar and beeping Farfisa organ that kind of detracts from its easy listening qualities. The end result is somewhat bubblegum sounding. Some uplifting lyrics about coming back up after having been down for some time. This one turned out much better than I thought it would during mixing. This was actually considered for [the] Chasing Rainbows album quite a lot


“So even though `Coming Around Again` is released 9 months after Chasing Rainbows it is not an indication of how the next album is gonna sound like...it’s just a damn great song.”


The B-side, "I Feel High," was originally meant to be a kick ass rock’n’roll tune but in the process of the mixing it turned out quite differently. Lorenzo Woodrose explains:


"`I Feel High` is really different. If it wasn`t for the lyrical theme (sex, drugs, rock`n`roll) it would have fit well on the Chasing Rainbows album, where I deliberately wanted to go a bit deeper with my subject matter. Acoustic guitar, bass, tambourine and a hauntingly hypnotic Farfisa organ. We actually recorded this as a band, but felt it worked better sounding a bit folky and psychedelic. The intro was later pasted on, consisting of backwards drums and distant fuzz guitar".


First pressing will be a 1000 copies on black vinyl featuring exclusive artwork by Kiryk.

Baby Woodrose Split 7""Here Today Gone Tomorrow" Missing

From Bad Afro Records:

The new Baby Woodrose/Dollhouse split 7" was supposed to be released today, March 31... but it wont. The freight company doesn`t know what happened to the shipment of the singles - they simply disappeared. Out in thin air. Just like that. A new pressing is in the making and new release date is now April 14. Sorry about the inconvenience.

The Baby Woodrose contribution to the split 7", "Here Today Gone Tomorrow" (wrong choice of songtitle it seems), can still be heard on the Bad Afro MySpace page and is available for download on Klicktrack.com exclusively effective Monday, March 31.