Red Cross

Red Cross provides a thorough immersion into McDonalds' multi-dimensional sonic world, giving equal airtime to laid-back rockers (“Stunt Queen”), charming power ballads (“The Witches Stand”) and cute theme-song-like pop numbers to some sassy British sex late 60s farce (“The Shaman's Disappearing Robe”). While the context of The White Album might suggest an anarchic, out-of-reach pastiche, Redd Kross isn't radically reinventing himself here: The record listens more like a beloved collection of classic 45s. Recorded in collaboration with former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer (who produces and plays drums for a recovering Crover here) Red Cross it's a hit parade that perpetually walks the tightrope between McDonalds' pristine melodic artistry and their innate garage swagger.

Even when reduced to pop-single proportions, Redd Kross can traverse entire universes. A rare duet between the brothers, 'The Main Attraction' begins as an existential acoustic lament before joining their voices and using their natural harmonic power to launch the song into space. If Redd Kross is the definition of a cult, then “Good Times Propaganda Band” is their subject of indoctrination, a tiki-lounge psych-pop jaunt that suddenly drifts into KISS fireworks. And at just over two minutes, the soft-porn-inspired “Emanuelle Insane” uses a throwback to Redd Kross' 1981 “Annette's Got the Hits” to forge an unholy alliance between groovy '70s sitar-psych 60 and brooding. 80s post-punk.

But Red Cross it's ultimately a testament to what one song refers to as “Simple Magic”: “Three sacred chords,” Jeff sings, “Their power is not to be ignored!” And so McDonalds spends most of it Red Cross blasting out jangly jams with the effortless purposefulness of the Beatles if they cut their teeth in the LA hardcore scene in the late 70s. (AI technology won't do a better job of recreating John Lennon's voice than Jeff McDonald did on the haunting “What's In It for You?”) But Red Cross bolsters McDonalds' well-worn cheekiness with a healthy dose of heartfelt gratitude, particularly on the autobiographical album-closing anthem 'Born Innocent'. An origin story myth anchored by Pete Townshend's windmill riffs, the song suggests that if the brothers aren't satisfied with the documentary and memoir, they already have the anchor track for a Redd Kross jukebox musical.

“Born Innocent” takes its name, of course, from Redd Kross's 1982 debut, an ironically titled docu about corrupt youth that opened with a song about a former child star arrested for cocaine possession. As the Born Innocent The documentary shows that McDonalds has endured a lot of crazy shit that could have irreparably broken less optimistic spirits, from a 13-year-old Steve being kidnapped by a woman nearly twice his age, to Jeff's substance abuse in the 80s, to the band their. years of commercial misfortune. But up Red Cross, the McDonalds are still very much those Hawthorne kids who blow their minds with every turn of the record player, forever staring at the Paul McCartney and Paul Stanley posters in their bedrooms and dreaming of one day hanging next to them. “We are all born innocent,” the McDonalds declare in unison, and after nearly half a century of music together, they've magically managed to stay that way.