Seventeen years after their last album, Baby Chaos return with a new barrage of blistering riffs, melodic muscle and thoughts on the human condition. The elaborately-titled Skulls, Skulls, Skulls, Show Me The Glory will fizz out of your speakers, triggering an avalanche of scuzzed-up guitars and rich harmonies. The band's third studio album has been recorded by the original line-up: Chris Gordon (vocals, guitar), Grant McFarlane (guitar), Bobby Dunn (bass) and Davy Greenwood (drums) and the huge changes in the music business since their last outing provided a jolt of hope and enthusiasm. Skulls, Skulls, Skulls, Show Me The Glory retains that instantly recognisable Baby Chaos verve and swagger, while showcasing how the band's songwriting has matured during the long hiatus. Chris Gordon s voice explores bold new dimensions and each song has a unique identity. This album has everything, from the opening bludgeon of You Can't Shut Us Up, to the wistfully anthemic We Were Youth, to Blackbirds' quirky schizophrenia, to the old-school pop-rock chug of A Tingling On Your Bright Skin, to the beautifully panoramic Out Of The Silence. You'll have a different favourite song every week, maybe every day. The Chaos began when the band members met at school, in the small town of Stewarton, Ayrshire. Baby Chaos have resided in Glasgow since their early 20s and in 1993 were signed to East West Records. Their 1994 debut album Safe Sex, Designer Drugs and the Death of Rock and Roll established them as energetic upstarts with great songs, before 1996's bruising Love Your Self Abuse elevated their style to a whole new level. The recording of Skulls... began at the end of 2013 and continued throughout 2014, as the band found time in their otherwise busy lives to construct an album they felt worthy of the world's attention. The result is an explosive and emotionally textured album very much of its time. Review Wherever my eclectic tastes led me in the early 1990s, Baby Chaos were not on the playlist, so I came to this, the band's much-postponed third album, without expectations, if less than enticed by the Hell's Angels iconography and macho title. Never judge a book by its cover, because Chris Gordon and his cohorts, a quartet reunited to continue their adventure have produced a fine rock record indeed, which benefits from Gordon's years of studio expertise in between and, importantly, takes itself none too seriously. Their veteran status is explicitly acknowledged in the opening You Can't Shut Us Up and the anthemic, tongue-in cheek, We Were Youth. The macho swagger of much spandex strut-rock is given a nice post-modern twist in the Poison Ivy Girls couplet "I know it's not important but/You're acting like a total slut", and Have Faith has a lazy chorus of children that recalls Alice Cooper's School's Out. A Tingling on Your Bright Skin is fine pop-metal while the close Habibi is altogether heavier stuff. The chances of Kelly Macdonald appearing in their videos these days may have diminished, but Baby Chaos still play the role of middle-class parent-worriers with a fine Glasgow cheek. --Keith Bruce, Herald Scotland, April 15th 2015 The big surprise is that there's a lot of places where Baby Chaos owe more than a passing resemblance to early Radiohead - Blackbirds, Have Faith In Yourself and Poison Ivy Girls could all have been on Pablo Honey (certainly Chris Gordon's vocals bear a bit of a resemblance to Thom Yorke). But the key is that Skulls... has enough punch and energy to keep you listening for all 45 minutes. If you need some angsty rock music with enough earworms to keep you coming back for repeated listening, this should do nicely. --Andy Close, , April 15th 2015
