Spring Break
'Lonely Road' is one best not travelled on
2 out of 5 stars
Alyssa Carroll
Issue date: 2/5/09 Section: Focus
The sophomore album release from the moderately popular emo cock-rock band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, "Lonely Road," is musical bile for a listener's eardrum. With a cookie-cutter sound from an already stereotyped genre, "Lonely Road" is barely worth listening to, let alone reviewing.
Gaining recognition after its last hit single, "Face Down," one of the most prevalent problems for this album was lead singer Ronnie Winter's voice. Sounding somewhere between severe nasal congestion and choked back emotion, Winter's voice sounds like little more than angry yodeling.
The single off the album, "You Better Pray," features lyrics of equal musical caliber as Winter's voice, with rhyming brilliance such as "You like to hide behind lies/ But we see through your disguise/ It's not a threat or a curse/ Just a proper verse." A proper verse, sung over equally proper and predictable electric guitar squeals and odd synthesizer noises.
With every song sounding almost identical, it's hard to distinguish the merits of various tracks on the album. Luckily, however, displaying the true range of talent, the group slows the album down a bit with the track "Believe." Featuring the inspirational lyrics "Don't worry world/ I feel your pain, and it's a shame/ My shoulders are hurt/ And stressed from the pain," Red Jumpsuit Apparatus does make one want to believe - believe in the ability to listen to better music.
Overall, most music fans will probably want to hold off before spending any money on this CD. However, fans of sleeveless tees, Creed or Nickelback may find some value and head-banging fun in "Lonely Road."
Gaining recognition after its last hit single, "Face Down," one of the most prevalent problems for this album was lead singer Ronnie Winter's voice. Sounding somewhere between severe nasal congestion and choked back emotion, Winter's voice sounds like little more than angry yodeling.
The single off the album, "You Better Pray," features lyrics of equal musical caliber as Winter's voice, with rhyming brilliance such as "You like to hide behind lies/ But we see through your disguise/ It's not a threat or a curse/ Just a proper verse." A proper verse, sung over equally proper and predictable electric guitar squeals and odd synthesizer noises.
With every song sounding almost identical, it's hard to distinguish the merits of various tracks on the album. Luckily, however, displaying the true range of talent, the group slows the album down a bit with the track "Believe." Featuring the inspirational lyrics "Don't worry world/ I feel your pain, and it's a shame/ My shoulders are hurt/ And stressed from the pain," Red Jumpsuit Apparatus does make one want to believe - believe in the ability to listen to better music.
Overall, most music fans will probably want to hold off before spending any money on this CD. However, fans of sleeveless tees, Creed or Nickelback may find some value and head-banging fun in "Lonely Road."
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Jess
posted 2/06/09 @ 5:18 PM EST
it is soooo worth listening to! its the best album i have EVER bought!!!
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