I’ll be the first to admit I was never a fan of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus growing up; they always felt second rate to the bands in the genres surrounding what they stood for.
And now, they’re releasing their latest full length LP X’s For Eyes tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 3, and bringing with it a fairly positive shift in sound.
The album kicks off with “Always The King,” which features vocals from Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens. Immediately the album feels more pop-metal oriented, but for some reason it seems to work on these guys fairly well.
“Purple Halo” feels like something from a decade or two prior, but In a positive way. It’s riffy, nostalgic and emo laden; 2008 era screams carrying through the background, reminiscent of peak-era Hawthorne Heights.
Track three, “Perfection,” leans a little more into the pop-rock feels, I feel like there isn’t too much about this track that makes it stand out or feel special. It’s not bad, but it’s just sort of there.
Leaning into the title track, we find further pop effect, but with a punch up in value; it suits the track well. It’s well mixed, it’s sensible, it’s a pretty solid title track with a nice guitar solo in the latter half, followed by some pretty fun basslines.
“Bad Beat” kicks off with some of my favorite riffage of the entire release, it’s reminiscent of 2010’s pop-punk guitar licks. When the vocals hit, it strips away that pop-punk feel and becomes its own thing. The vocal melody is rather infectious and the entire track feels pretty anthemic, that riff is rather hard to shake.
Reaching into track six with “Slipping Through (No Kings),” gives another track that I just didn’t get too much out of, at least until we reached the breakdown portion. It was a moment that caught me off guard and broke the track up and gave it a little something to stand out.
“Home Improvement” is one of my favorite moments of this release—it’s tinged with an air of nostalgia and stood out to me as something that may actually end up on my personal playlist. It’s catchy and fun, it’s a step back in time to high school hallways and easier times.
When we slide out of “Home Improvement” and into “Twenty Hour Drive,” we are thrown into infectious and full-fledged pop-punk territory that fits so well on these guys. The guitar is yet again infectious and uppity, the background vocals lending even more anthemic energy to this LP.
“Kins and Carroll” felt more like standard RJA, sort of like “Perfection,” it just didn’t have anything that really brought it up a notch; however, the vocal delivery is nice and the chorus fairly catchy, but aside from that, I didn’t find much intriguing or pulling me towards this track or making it anything I’d want to put on repeat.
We get a pretty solid and spacious slow-down with “Getting By.” A cinematic and open track, with pretty solid and sparse guitar work. This track proves again that RJA is, if nothing else, loaded with some pretty solid riffs.
The album wraps up with another pop-metal leaning track with “Worth It,” featuring Craig Mabbitt of Escape The Fate, proving that the band is capable of diversity, it’s a fun track at the very least. I like that the album starts and finishes with a solid feature and a step away from the meat of the album.
All in all, X’s For Eyes proves that after nearly twenty years, a band that you once doubted, can change your mind; and to me, that’s an impressive enough feat. Sure, there are some skippable tracks here and there, but altogether I’m pretty impressed at the capability of a band I think a lot of my generation sort of forgot about.
Even if The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is a band that you wrote off at one point or another, I recommend giving the album a listen, I think you too may be surprised and find it rather infectious and enticing.
Rating
3.1/5
Favorite Tracks
“Bad Beat”
“Home Improvement”
Tracklist
1. Always The King (feat. Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens)
2. Purple Halo
3. Perfection
4. X’s For Eyes
5. Bad Beat
6. Slipping Through (No Kings)
7. Home Improvement
8. Twenty Hour Drive
9. Kins and Carroll
10. Getting By
11. Worth It (feat. Craig Mabbitt of Escape The Fate)
Get Album
https://rja.lnk.to/xforeyesalbum
Tour Dates
https://www.theredjumpsuitapparatus.com/tour
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