Critic's evaluation
After seven years, the second longest hiatus between releases in the Californian quintet's discography, new material has finally been released. Rad Wings Of Destiny is Ugly Kid Joe's fifth studio album and succeeds Uglier Than They Used Ta Be, the album that marked the group's return after a nine-year break.
A breath coming from Shannon Larkin's chiming pulls in a hard rock riff that makes the listener's pupils dilate and their hair stand on end. Dave Fortman not only starts a swinging and provocative riff, but, together with Klaus Eichstadt's guitar solo, builds a typical AC/DC melody. However, what impresses already in the introduction is the lyrical interpretation by Whitfield Crane who, with a raspy and slightly metallic vocal, recalls the iconic timbre of Bon Scott. It is from the second verse that That Ain't Living gains more body and an extra dose of concision through the way Cordell Crockett draws the bass lines. With the aid of the third guitar employed by JJ Curran, the track exudes sensuality, provocation, and a touch of grandeur. Interestingly enough, in terms of lyricism, That Ain't Living is a song that talks about wasted time and the lack of persistence in achieving one's goals. And as Crane himself puts it, "'cause that ain't living".
Catchy, energetic, and with a great popular appeal with its introductory pop punk atmosphere from the drum beat, it is marked by a present bass and melodically rough guitars that give a more tasteful texture. Linear but with a soothing pre-refrain, Not Like The Other manages to flirt with the rhythmic ambiences of Barão Vermelho while dialoguing about following the social flow before striving for one's own success. It's a track that encourages the listener to get out of the doldrums of routine and look for things that broaden one's horizons to, as the title suggests, differentiate oneself from others.
A softened, comforting folk with a hinterland aroma. This is what the introductory guitar of Everything's Changing offers the listener. With its nostalgic flavor and floral aroma, it impresses in managing, through simplicity, to build a harmony that is purely moving. When the guitar comes in, there is an amplification in flavors that, together with Larkin's drums, whose levada informs an unreasonable connection to the rhythmic base commonly built by Scott Phillips in his songs in Alter Bridge, creates an even softer movement. Emotional and tearful in character, the chorus leads the listener into an even more moving and penetrating second half thanks to the piano notes that overly heighten the nostalgic question that even throws more commotion for its contribution to the harmony. Everything's Changing is definitely a purely emotional ballad that offers a storyline of someone lost in his suffering, someone who remembers the days gone by and sees tomorrow as a new opportunity. Such a chance is to overcome a kind of mourning for a person who no longer frequents the same reality.
Melancholic to the point of sounding the tears of disappointment and regret running down the cheek, the melody that begins brings with it a horizon of gray skies and icy wind. Having the drums as the factor that imputes movement, even if linear, Kill The Pain presents a chorus that not only suffers, but pours considerable doses of despair and anguish into its simultaneously introspective explosion. Outside of Ugly Kid Joe's usual, Kill The Pain presents a lyricism that dialogues about the battle against addiction, be it to alcohol or other drugs. It is the perfect dichotomy between the easy and instantaneous way of escaping from the pain and suffering that plagues life at times, and the difficulty of being independent from this same artifice that was once a source of pleasure. With powerful verses like "helpless are the dreams" and the provocatively syminic "let me be the reason you fall again", Kill The Pain is sentimental, visceral, and represents all the desperation of those who seek alternatives to deal with their own pain.
Dave Fortman's base guitar curiously inserts a melancholic theme to the first moments of the song. However, from the union of Krane's fingerings, there is the insertion of ingredients that mix country and folk in the construction of an old-west atmosphere. Interestingly, in between slight flirtations with the softened, floral folk of Greta Van Fleet, Ugly Kid Joe manages to fuse the humor revered in the single Everything About You with the sexual and raunchy humor of Steel Panther. As a romantic ballad, Lola has a comic lyrical character that relates the character's attraction to a largely masculinized woman, which leads the listener to interpret her as a transvestite. Lola, therefore, is an extremely entertaining ballad-single that easily catches the viewer by its loose, unpretentious and attractive plot.
Hard rock resumes its most classic form. Sexy, catchy and swinging, the introduction offers a very cadenced structure dominated, again, by drums and guitar. With a vocal again fused in the drive technique, Crane brings a raspy voice that spices up the lyrical plot of the track. Flirting with the blues rock of Sharp Dressed Man, ZZ Top's single, Dead Friends Play is a song about intensity, recklessness and rock's relationship with its deceased exponents. A product that is contagious for its aesthetic simplicity and that rediscovers the brilliance of the Californian quintet's hard rock.
Mixing unreasonable references to Sweet Home Alabama, single by Lynird Skynyrd, and Mais Uma Vez, single by Jota Quest, the introductory swing is executed under a more serious contagion, but still, attractive. Between clean and falsetto vocal overlaps under a slightly British accent, Crane introduces Up To The City, a song with a linear theme, but with a timid and attractive swing. Making the melody more harmonious and, to some extent, grandiose, the chorus assists the listener in the company of a character trying to disentangle himself from the predatory environment of the big city. At the same time, in a more sensitive and philosophical way, Ugly Kid Joe relates the character's loss of sparkle and vivacity, which is clear in the lyrical line "she, I've been looking in her eyes. Something is dead, she's already dead". Up To The City still surprises the listener by presenting a softened and contagious solo in a way that brings a comforting atmosphere that flirts, even, with the ambience of Simple Man, another Lynyrd Skynyrd single, at the same time that offers a melodic cadence that recreates the structure of the chorus of Feel The Quit River Rage, single from Live.
The pure folk is built from a guitar whose swing emanates a pleasantly sertanejo aroma. With the aid of the caxixi, the banjo, and the sweetening piano, the song even flirts with a blues rock outfit represented by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Drinkin' & Drivin' is a song that manages to mix the comical and the dramatic as it relates, as the title suggests, to mixing drinking and driving. With audibly drunken laughter as if they were participating in the same bar conversation circle, the song creates a purposeful softening to the delicate subject of drunk driving.
With a sunny horizon, stunning softness and revitalizing, typically Californian fresh aromas, the dawn of the new set reintroduces an AC/DC-style hard rock ambience just as Ugly Kid Joe did on That Ain't Living. Soft in its energizing melody, the sound manages to create an infectious foundation even though it hasn't yet reached its full maturation point. Swinging and uncontrollably exciting, Failure sells itself with a simple verse in its 4x4 metric, but gains weight with an even more catchy, bubblegum chorus. Comical to the point of forming silly involuntary smiles on the listener's face, the song narrates, with the utmost relaxation and debauchery, the story of a luckless, loser character. Everything he touches or everything he dreams goes wrong. Nevertheless, Failure, with its provocative and sloppy solo, brings, in some of its lyrical lines that sometimes even go unnoticed, the motivation for the character - and the listener - to believe in himself. This is the remedy for success in life, something that has always passed far from any horizon glimpsed by the unlucky interlocutor.
One can smell the scent of tree leaves shimmering among the evening breezes. With a setting sun, you can hear the birdsong on their way to nest while being embraced by a comfortingly bucolic energy. Soft and enveloping, the introductory melody moves in a mature way under a folk sonority that enchants by its lightness and harmonic sensibility. This energetic-sounding-sensory context is the basis for the lyrical plot of Long Road to be received and assimilated correctly. As a work that speaks of not giving up, the song stimulates a sense of emotional empowerment in the listener that breaks down any depreciative barriers that might plague their innermost being. Long Road is a track that brings a constructive view of both rainy and sunny days; after all, it reinforces that all are important in the maturing process. Almost like a milder sequel to Kill The Pain, Long Road is motivation for living life with an upright and confident attitude. A true re-energizing ballad.
It took a while, it's true. But just as it was with Uglier Than They Used Ta Be, Ugly Kid Joe is back with full energy. After all, more than divulging the strong influence of AC/DC hard rock suffered by the group, Rad Wings Of Destiny came with a great freshness and with largely infectious melodies.
As a hard rock focused work, the album is filled with sensuality and swing while transiting through nostalgic, melancholic, nostalgic and, surprisingly, motivational lyrical themes. Far from being a sad work, however, the album comes with strong comedic storylines that are capable of eliciting silly smiles from even the most stern listeners.
Titles such as Lola, That Ain't Living, and Failure are great examples of the quintet's tylically Californian hilarities. On the other hand, Everything's Changing, Kill The Pain, Long Road, and even Up To The City show that even the debauchees possess a high degree of sensitivity. And that's what the lyrical versatility that Ugly Kid Joe imprinted on Rad Wings Of Destiny shows, thanks to the competence of producer Mark Dodson.
To brighten up and divide these counterpoints well, the album was filled with a mishmash of rock subgenres with other fusions. Besides the aforementioned hard rock, the album also contains folk, blues rock and pop punk, styles that easily embody Ugly Kid Joe's rhythmic signature.
Released on 10/21/2022 via UKJ Records, Rad Wings Of Destiny is a denotatively fresh and swinging work. Full of hilaries, it is an album that, while intensely entertaining and catchy, manages to walk through delicate themes that show that even those of a more debauched character possess a high dose of sensitivity. And so Ugly Kid Joe has achieved the goal of, with this album, releasing the most versatile material of their career without losing the lightness that made their name.
