Lonely Road (The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus album)

Lonely Road is the second studio album by American rock band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, which was released on February 3, 2009. The album received a mixed reception from critics. Lonely Road debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and spawned two singles: "You Better Pray" and "Pen & Paper". To promote the record, the band toured across Asia, Australia and North America, with appearances at music festivals.

Lonely Road
Studio album by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Released	February 3, 2009
Recorded	March 2008
Studio	Valley Village, CA
Genre	Alternative rock, pop punk
Length	40:17
Label	Virgin
Producer	Howard Benson
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus chronology
Don't You Fake It (2006) Lonely Road (2009) Am I the Enemy (2011)
Alternative covers
Limited vinyl edition cover
Singles from Lonely Road
"You Better Pray" Released: October 15, 2008 "Pen & Paper" Released: February 27, 2009

Background

In March 2008, Alternative Press reported that the band were currently in the studio.[1]

Release

The first single off the album was "You Better Pray". It was released to radio on November 18, 2008.[2] On December 3, it was announced that the group's next album, Lonely Road, would be released in February 2009. In the same announcement, the album's track listing was revealed.[3] Two days later, "Pen & Paper" was released as a free download. Shortly afterwards, the band toured throughout the remainder of December.[4] On December 15, a music video for "You Better Pray" premiered on MTV2's Unleashed programme.[5] A day later, it was revealed that guitarist Elias Reidy had left the band back in October. In addition, the album's cover art was posted.[6] Following this, the band started touring again in early January, running into early February.[4] On January 28, the band's show in Toronto was cancelled due to a snow storm.[7]

Three weeks before the debut of the album, the songs "Represent", "Pull Me Back" and "Believe" were made available for free streaming from their website.[8] On January 23, the album was made available for streaming through the band's Myspace.[9] Lonely Road was released on February 3 through major label Virgin Records.[3] The vinyl version of the album featured different artwork and included the album on the CD.[10] The band went on tour in Asia later in February,[3] followed by an appearance at Soundwave festival in Australia in February and March.[11] "Pen & Paper" impacted radio on March 3.[12] In April, the band went on a tour of the US with Secondhand Serenade.[13]

Reception

Critical response

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	54/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
Alternative Addiction	[16]
Alternative Press
Rock on Request	(favorable) link
Rolling Stone	[17]

Lonely Road garnered mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 54, based on 5 reviews.[14] A writer from Alternative Addiction wrote that the band "expanded outside their pop punk sound", saying that "No Spell" and the title track contain "a heavy dose of pop" and both "You Better Pray" and "Pleads and Postcards" "blend[s] into the rock territory," saying they've "added on some new things that they couldn’t or didn’t do with the last album and they built on the things they did well."[16] Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard said about the record, "The band skips between emo pop and orchestral pomp while applying plenty of major-label gloss. The result: Much of the time the Jumpsuits end up sounding like a lesser version of Hawthorne Heights."[17] AllMusic writer Andrew Leahey panned the album for overreaching on tracks that either contain "symphonic string schmaltz and fist-pumping guitars ("Represent")" or get excessive by adding "an honest-to-God gospel during the title track," and criticized Ronnie Winter's vocal delivery of "acrobatic flips around every melody, oversinging the songs within an inch of their lives." He concluded that "Don't You Fake It may have suffered from a lack of variety, but Lonely Road is plagued by different diseases: misguided ambition, outlandish excess, and a bad case of the ol' sophomore slump."[15]

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200, selling 26,000 copies in its first week. It outperformed their debut effort Don't You Fake It, which placed at number 25 and sold 1,000 fewer copies.[18]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Ronnie Winter, all music written by Ronnie Winter, Elias Reidy, and Duke Kitchens.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"You Better Pray"	3:35
2.	"No Spell"	3:03
3.	"Pen & Paper"	3:24
4.	"Represent"	3:24
5.	"Pull Me Back"	3:10
6.	"Step Right Up"	3:47
7.	"Believe"	4:14
8.	"Pleads and Postcards"	3:28
9.	"Lonely Road"	4:14
10.	"Senioritis"	2:20
11.	"Godspeed"	5:37

Personnel

• Ronnie Winter – lead vocals, keyboard
• Elias Reidy – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Duke Kitchens – rhythm guitar
• Joey Westwood – bass guitar
• Jon Wilkes – drums, percussion

References

1. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus announce acoustic East Coast tour". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. March 6, 2008. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
2. "AllAccess.com Alternative eWeekly". AllAccess. November 11, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
3. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Announce Japan Tour and Album". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. December 3, 2008. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
4. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus announce U.S. tour dates". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. December 5, 2008. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
5. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus to premiere video on MTV2". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. December 11, 2008. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
6. "Red Jumpsuit Apparatus guitarist departs, reveal album cover". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. December 16, 2008. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
7. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus cancel Toronto show". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. January 28, 2009. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-01-18. Retrieved 2009-01-11.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus post full stream of Lonely Road". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. January 23, 2009. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
10. "Red Jumpsuit Apparatus to release vinyl for Lonely Road". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. December 23, 2008. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
11. Hutton, Sarah (September 23, 2008). "Soundwave Line-up 2009". FasterLouder. Junkee Media. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
12. "AllAccess.com Alternative eWeekly". AllAccess. February 24, 2009. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
13. "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus touring with Secondhand Serenade". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. April 3, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
14. "Reviews for Lonely Road by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
15. Leahey, Andrew. "Lonely Road - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus". AllMusic. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
16. "Album Review of Lonely Road by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus". Alternative Addiction. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
17. Hoard, Christian (January 23, 2009). "Lonely Road : The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Archived from the original on January 30, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
18. Hasty, Katie (February 11, 2009). "The Fray Topples Springsteen On Billboard 200". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved May 5, 2018.