Album Reviews

Red City Radio has never been big on subtlety, but they take things to a whole new level on ‘Paradise,’ their latest, biggest and brightest album to date that comes packed with a dozen songs that are more suited for an arena than a club. But thanks to corona, the album will have to be enjoyed at home for the time-being. Which can be just as awesome if you know the meaning behind the album title. “We took the album title from the song of the same name,” explains vocalist/guitarist Garrett Dale, “which is about finding your own paradise – even if that’s just a hard journey you’re going to take. That’s what paradise means to me – a paradise of the mind, finding truth and peace and love through your honest, horrible realities. It’s all how you look at it, all perception. Paradise can even be a prison if you look at it that way.”

While you let that sink in, let me just ramble on here. Songs like ‘Baby Of The Year’, the carefree ‘Young, Beautiful & Broke’ and ‘100,000 Candles’ are packed with everything we have come to loved about Red City Radio. But this time around, it all comes with a more defiant, positive and unfuckwithable disposition. And then some. Opener ‘Where Does The Time Go’ is the kind of slow-smoldering, larger-than-life intro that immediately raises expectations. Expectations that are more than lived up to with the Thin Lizzy-esque dual guitars in ‘Doin’ It For Love’ which are just plain awesome, the organ-enhanced ‘Apocalypse, Please!’ which comes at you with plenty of rock ‘n roll swagger and an air of pleasantness while the acoustic ‘Fremont Casino’ shows off the band’s knack for vocal harmonies.

Whether you want to pump your fist in the air or shake your ass, Red City Radio have it all on album number four. In spades.

Track listing:

1. Where Does The Time Go
2. Baby Of The Year
3. Did You Know
4. Love A Liar
5. Young, Beautiful & Broke
6. 100,000 Candles
7. Paradise
8. Edmond Girls
9. Doin' It For Love
10. Apocalypse, Please!
11. Fremont Casino
12. Gutterland