Review Summary: Writing a check that the rest just couldn't cash
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has had a turbulent history; after the critical and commercial flop of their sophomore effort “Lonely Road” (partially due to extraordinarily high expectations after their fantastic debut album), they lost a good portion of their fans and public exposure. They slowly started to redeem themselves with their most recent two appealing EPs and a mediocre third album, but trouble wasn’t far off; they once again got in a scuffle, only this time it was against a photographer in a copyright issue. Again, their followers dwindled to a very small amount due to the majority of their fans (myself included) siding with the photographer. Now, a year later and TRJA are back with their fourth album, ironically titled “4”, and have taken to labeling themselves a “Christian Rock” group. Are they ready to come back? Can they live up to the high standard set by their debut? “4” starts off on an insanely strong note, then dips into sordid mediocrity with only glimpses of potential along the way.
The album opens with “Grimm 2.0”, a nine minute epic that serves as a sequel to the debut album’s closer “Grim Goodbye.” The track features everything from ambient piano juxtaposed with eerie atmospherics and haunting riff work to spoken word monologues with infectious backing guitar arrangements. Ronnie Winter’s vastly improved harsh vocals are put on full display here, and his clean vocals are far less strained than in his other efforts and the lyricism is satisfactory and conveys the story of the song well. It’s a wonderfully constructed track and worthy of standing up as one of the best on the debut album if it was placed in there; sadly… this is where the fun ends. The rest of the album is a mediocre amalgamation of in your face religious lyricism executed in a tasteless manner, overused alt-rock riff arrangements and it all finishes up with the cringe inducing ballad “Jesus Is My Rock Star.”
Ronnie Winters displays his talents fully on the album but never reaches the heights of the first track, sure the choruses are catchy and his tone is appealing, but there’s no variety, no flavor to his performance and the lyricism backing his soaring notes never ceases to amaze in all the wrong ways. Right off the bat in the second track we’re treated to gems such as “Sitting with the bible in my grasp and a gun in my left hand” and “I cried out, dear heavenly father surround me with love, cause suicide is not my style.” It’s not only in poor taste, but disastrously executed as well.
The guitar riffs lose the atmospheric tinge they had in Grimm 2.0 and devolve into your standard catchy alt-rock affair, predictable drum patterns and fills, upbeat instrumental arrangements and dashes of occasional piano here and there. Bar the first track, the bass is predictably absent. The production is one of the nicer aspects of this record; it’s full, crisp and every instrument is fully defined and this does keep the rest of the record from being too much of a chore to get through. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus had a golden opportunity to redeem themselves by embracing their strengths and letting go of their clichés; This is why Grimm 2.0’s is quite painful, it shows that this band of capable of and how that potential was so miserably squandered in an attempt to portray themselves as a new band in all the wrong ways.
