Paradise

Punk-rockers Red City Radio return on Pure Noise Records with Paradise. The 12 songs that make up Paradise can, if you want them to, act as a kind of mirror of the soul - one that you can look into to analyze who and where you are and, more, importantly, what you can do, even if things seem overwhelmingly bad, to push through. This isn't some kind of cheesy self-help record, though. It's full of the same trials and tribulations that have always plagued Red City Radio. It's just that this time, more than ever before, the defiance was pushing back against the bad stuff has been replaced by a very palpable sense of hope. It's not just in the lyrics, either - even when they discuss the darker elements of life - but also in the upbeat crunch of "Baby Of The Year", the almost carefree romanticism of "Young, Beautiful & Broke", the title track's sunny guitar licks and riffs, the joyous, rollicking, Thin Lizzy-esque swagger of "Doin' It For Love", the soul-quenching attitude of "Fremont Casino."