Not the easiest of Muses records to listen to, 'Red Heaven' sees a Tanya Donelly-free band moving to far heavier territory than the previous year's 'The Real Ramona', without yet molding a harder sound in the poppier forms of the later 'University' and 'Limbo' albums.
However, it is precisely this uncertainty as to how to take a rock direction that makes for some of the most effective tracks the group ever recorded. 'Pearl' and 'Furious' almost defy genre: the former switches abruptly from acoustic strum to deranged metal, while the latter is a great big smouldering metallic volcano of heavy guitars and Hersch's vocals at their most pained and rasping. More straighforward, but no less spectacular is 'Dio', the magnificently raw thrash of a collaboration with Bob Mould, and 'Rosetta Stone', which should be listened to for its demented time-signature changes alone.
The album's only failing is that while tinkering with rock guitars yields some superb tracks (check out the three wonderfully weird intrumentals), when The Muses attempt to reconcile this with their pop sensibilities, it doesn't really work so well as on future albums. 'Firepile' and 'Backroad' are fun enough, but their grunge-pop fusion feels a bit forced compared to, say, 'Bright Yellow Gun' off 'University'.
Though I was left with the nagging feeling that 'Red Heaven' could probably have been slightly better had it been psychotically-heavy all the way through, I'm certainly not trying to put anyone off. Kristin Hersch is as tortured and lyrically skilled as ever, and while at its worst 'Red Heaven' occasionally sounds average, at its best it contains the most ferocious and powerful rock the band ever did.
