Baby Chaos – Skulls, Skulls, Skulls, Show Me The Glory
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