Ranking the Albums: Baroness

Join Pete Pardo & Christian Canzoneri as they rank the albums of US stoner/psychedelic/prog/metal act Baroness. #baroness
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[@MetalPersonJ]

Since Stone came out a few days ago, maybe a comment showing where Pete and Christian would rank it amongst the catalog would be pretty sweet.

[@bammyjastard]

Blue Red Purple Yellow and green Stone Gold and grey. And because they're such a fantastic band, even though gold and grey is last place, it's a very very good album. Tourniquet is one of my favourite songs of theirs.

[@joejohnson-vv6ip]

Thanks for finally getting to this band! They are so unique and creative, especially with the addition of Gina. I really love “Yellow & Green”. John Dyer Baizley is a great writer.

[@kevinmyles6369]

Thanks for doing this ranking. Fascinating current heavy but melodic band.. would love to dive in their discography and embrace them finally

[@kayfimt7769]

Oh I love Baroness. Great band.

[@paulh6673]

One of the bands that reignited my love for metal in the 00s, after a few years drifting into other genres. Baroness, Mastodon, The Sword, Kylesa, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Boulder, Municipal Waste, High On Fire etc etc.

[@parasitesundinism]

Boulder are you from Ohio?

[@srobbins1973]

Great job ranking these, good discussion

[@rocioiribe5841]

The album Purple was huge for me the year it came out. in the words of one half of the UK connection, it's super concise. and also really emotional. After that is Yellow & Green (even though it could really be one album). after that i didn't care for Gold & Grey and the first two i never bothered. but Jonh Baizley is a phenomenal artist.

[@chiragchittar4179]

Glad to see Chris on here! Loved this ranking. An eclectic band that has something for everyone. Album preferences for this band depend on what style people are into more. I like their heavier early albums more than the last few. My ranking Red (I keep going back to this as this is their most immediate album to me. It's the perfect blend of sludginess, heaviness and complexity. Grad is a fantastic instrumental too.) Purple (as you guys said, good mix of heaviness and radio friendliness) Blue (don't love it but solid album) Yellow and green (it's decent but I found it to be a bit meandering) Gold and grey (easily my least favorite. I think the production is poor on this takes away from the listening experience)

[@RanterInShades]

5. Gold & Grey 4. Red 3. Yellow & Green 2. Blue 1. Purple

[@jeffreyrobinson9120]

Thanks for the ranking. it`s a band I don`t know a whole lot about, but at least now I`ve got some direction where to start. Love the ranking shows.

[@williamwright2308]

Thank you for your guide to this band, I've been looking into them and actually my curiosity was aroused by their artwork with is phenomenal, such colours

[@danielmcbride2375]

Yellow and green is my favorite. It's just perfect in my taste likes

[@bifff8433]

Blue, Red, Yellow & Green, Second, Purple, First, Gold & Grey ... but love them all.

[@kilokosem]

Great show. But that being said yellow and green is my favorite but all there albums are great!

[@peeweewallabowski7084]

My ranking 1. Blue 2. Purple 3. Yellow & Green 4. Red 5. Gold & Grey Awesome band

[@guarddl9522]

New to this band. Listened to Purple for the first time today. Very good. Accessible, fairly heavy at the same time, and 42 min or so run time. Good recommendation on a starting point.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

One of the few bands I can think of where almost EVERY album is seriously fantastic. Some better than others sure, but no major duds and even at their worst all of these albums are interesting and very well written.

[@vinnynatale3733]

Yes like sound alot like mastodon and this is awesome I didn’t know the Metal meltdown watched sea of tranquility!

[@davidpawlowski7371]

1. Blue 2. Purple 3. Gold & Grey 4. Yellow & Green 5. Red Love each album, my only real difference was that Red was too proggy and unfocused in parts for what they do. Blue is the sweet spot for me. I agree that Purple is the best for a newbie. Also, catch these guys live, Gina is a great addition and they are a great live show.

[@garyjoyce2160]

Chris/ PETE what a bang up job on the different colors. Before show played like 8/10 songs scattered throughout albums. Will definitely do my homework this week / and give multiple spins to all 5 albums. In addition, Chris was nice to meet you on Oct 1. You were the 4 th hand I shook at the parking lot area lol 1. Bryce 2. King ALO 3. Nick. 4. Chris. Thanks guys/ homework time. 👍💯

[@chriscanzoneri5384]

Nice meeting you too, man. Enjoy checking these guys out! Lots of good stuff on these albums.

[@garyjoyce2160]

@@chriscanzoneri5384 / from what I’ve heard early on/ agreed. You did tremendous summary. Stay well Chris 👍💯

[@weirddebbiem1619]

Another band to check out. I think I will start with Purple because Pete suggested to do so plus it's my favorite color. 💜🤣

[@bengalgangster]

hi my fav color also💜plus my fav band has purple in it😘

[@weirddebbiem1619]

@@bengalgangster So does my favorite band 💜🎶

[@bengalgangster]

@@weirddebbiem1619 wow how did we not know that about each other lol!!😍😘

[@weirddebbiem1619]

@@bengalgangster yep. 😎🎶😂

[@DrOz-007]

John also did the artwork for Gillian Welch's The Harrow and the Harvest if you fancy something very different.

[@richpope7218]

He aint kidding about how damn good "Ogeechee Hymnal" is, and even better when keeping the headphones on to hear the two tracks that follow it, "-Steel that Sleeps the Eye" and "-Swollen and Halo"

[@Fastnbulbous1969]

I listened to the catalog while doing chores today and was liking Gold & Grey more on revisiting for the first time since the end of '19, so it did scootch up past Yellow & Green. Also still dig the first two EPs that I got on one CD. Glad we all agree on Blue, though it's worth mentioning that their twin lead guitars gave a nod to Thin Lizzy, especially in live shows when Pete Adams was still with 'em (his band Valkaryie even more so). This band is on the cusp of my 6 album run 21st century hall of fame when they finally put the new one out. Also hoping for album #6 from Graveyard and Truckfighters this year too.

[@holliskeith1571]

Whaaaat?? Yellow and Green is an awesome album and my number 1 followed by Blue, Purple, Red, Gold & Grey. The new one Stone I am not sure yet but should be right in the middle somewhere. Production is much cleaner as compared to the last few for sure. Ya'll mention Mastodon a few times in the video, I just saw Gina and John do an acoustic set in Atlanta today and as I left, I spoke to both of them and turned around to see Brent from Mastodon walking up to the stage. Both are from Georgia and you definitely can hear their influence on each others music. Kvelertak also has that influence, especially on their debut album which John does the artwork.

[@mechanicalanimal125]

1. Blue 2. Red 3. Gold & Grey 4. Yellow & Green 5. Purple

[@markfurru3368]

John does also do artwork for Kvelertak and Skeleton witch, two bands totally different from each other and from Baroness, but nonetheless both badass!

[@kevinmyles6369]

That's what I always thought of Baroness, Mastodon and Kylesa inspired heavy sludgy rock, post rock, post hardcore, metal

[@lahloonatic]

For me, only the yellow and green is clearly the weaker of the bunch. The rest keep moving around for me. Great band, cool ranking. Good to see the Cantz doing his thing too.

[@63mckenzie]

Has Pete ever done a review of the Stever albums? Not sure how many they had out but a very underrated band.

[@seaoftranquilityprog]

Not familiar with Stever...but the easy way always is to just do a search here on the channel or go to the Ranking the Albums playlist.

[@63mckenzie]

@@seaoftranquilityprog I think they only had two album. The singer /song writer is Karen Stever. They have videos on KZbin. Virtuoso is a wonderful kind of gothic metal.

[@Arutha_Con_Doin]

1. Blue (by a looooong way) 2. Purple 3. Gold & Grey 4. Red 5. Yellow & Green

[@MetalPersonJ]

Wow, matching lists! I don't keep up with all the Ranking The Albums videos, but the only one I can think of where the lists matchup is the Epica one. My top 2 are the same as well, but I was really turned off from Yellow & Green, so I never bothered with Purple.

[@seaoftranquilityprog]

Yeah, it's RARELY happened! This might be only the 3rd time it's happened on an Album Ranking show.

[@rocioiribe5841]

I instantly thought of the Epica ranking. it's the only one i've seen match up.

[@SomeSong2]

There are like four albums competing for the top spot. I can’t pick between them. Red Album, Blue Record, Yellow & Green, and Purple all take the cake depending on a given day.

[@markfurru3368]

I love Baroness, but I'm not sure I can rank them right now. Sadly, I still have yet to get Red Album and Blue Record - but I've heard each of them once or twice. Yellow & Green has my favorite song from the band, "Cocainium." Purple helped me get through some shit, as it came out towards the end of 2015 around the time my dad passed away. Gold & Grey is awesome, too, as "Borderlines" is probably my second favorite song from the band!

[@MosoKaiser]

For me: Blue Record Red Album Yellow & Green . . . . Purple / Gold & Grey Hard for me to place these two latest ones... Some _really_ cool songs on both, but their atrocious production makes me want to not even pick them up for a spin. :| I'm keeping all possible appendages crossed in hopes they wouldn't be keeping up with this Fridmann streak, but since they're already two albums deep in it, I'm not sure how optimistic one should be.

[@Jamie.Laszlo]

Without revisiting each album.... 1. Purple 2. Gold & Grey 3. Blue 4. Yellow & Green 5. Red At least, I think thats how it would shake out.

[@lening9]

1) Blue Record 2) Red Album 3) Purple 4) Gold & Grey 5) Yellow& Green 6) Stone

[@csababarath2784]

Funny Stone wasn't there on any of the year end lists of 2023. Wonder why?

[@andrewpearce6624]

I haven’t listened to Baroness for a while now. I never got into Purple and just didn’t bother picking up Gold and Grey. I love Red and Blue. Liked about half of Yellow and Green. If that was a single disc album it would have been much better. My ranking would be: 1. Red 2. Blue 3. Yellow and Green 4. Purple (maybe after listening this again it may go to position 3 5. Gold and Grey (I had dropped off by then) Have you listened to First and Second? Before the Red Album they released 2 EPs, First and Second. I don’t think you can buy them anymore. They are like rocking horse shit. I was lucky enough to pick up a reissue of them packaged together. If you like Red and Blue, First and Second is really interesting to see where they came from before Red. Those EPs have some really good tracks. Have you done a ranking of the Mastodon albums? It would really interesting to hear what you guys have to say about them.

[@wernermoritz882]

Yes, Pete did a Mastodon ranking.

[@andrewpearce6624]

@@wernermoritz882 Cool. I’ll have hunt for it.

[@andrewpearce6624]

@@wernermoritz882 thank you

[@narasimha7187]

Yellow and Green is superb and highly underrated. Incredible lyricism of a high order, dark and strange. There is enormous risk taking and musical innovation. Unmatched in my view and one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Oh, and the cover is gorgeous. But no, its not standard rock!

[@eriklauritzen6898]

The Purple album would be a top ten all time if the production wasn't in the hall of Fame for brick-walled beyond the red.

[@vinnynatale3733]

They sound a lot like mastodon

[@RakelaK67]

1 Red, 2 Gold & Grey, 3 = 3 way tie for the others

[@petrilampela]

I loved the music on Purple but it was sadly ruined by the production. It was compressed so badly that Death Magnetic sounds airy and smooth compared. I know it was totally intentional and a sound that they wanted but I had to sell the vinyl because I just couldn't listen to it. Still listen to Shock Me on Spotify occasionally though. I heard they used the same sound asthetic on their follow-up albums so I haven't bothered.

[@JohnnyRecently]

I wonder where Pete Stone would rank Stone?

[@kevintrjohnson]

No bad albums. Blue is #1 for me, but I was listening to Gold and Grey the other day for the first time since I first bought it back before Covid, and it really jumped up in the ranking for me--it nearly perfectly blends their sludgy stoner metal with their alt-rock experimentation (I'm not 100% sold on the mix, though). Purple and Red are about the same for me, the former is better at being experimental and the latter is heavier, and I can't decide between them. Yellow and Green has great moment, but it feels diluted both by its sheer length and by the attempts to sound more like alt/indie rock--it's the weakest Baroness album, but trimmed down, it would be a highlight for any number of the harder-edged alt rock bands.

[@franciskocher200]

I don't know this band...🤔🤔

[@seaoftranquilityprog]

All the more reason to investigate them...

[@wernermoritz882]

Purple is great but famously suffers from its extreme production choices. Everything (vocals, drums, guitars…) is distorted and in the red, it sounds horrible. A lot of people complained about it and suspected it might be a technical error or something. the band has stated that it was intentional and the album was meant to sound like this. To me the production almost kills the enjoyment of the album.

[@daanthing6002]

i quit following them after the blue album. After two great albums the yellow one just fell flat on it's face. Bad songwriting. Really enjoyed them live both times i saw them.

[@sabinoabdala5685]

1- Gold & Grey 2-Blue Record 3-Purple 4-Red Album 5-Yellow & Green