The Ramones Discography: Part 4 : Road To Ruin

While 1977's Rocket To Russia is now regarded as a pivotal point in punk music becoming a legitimate form of music, but the sales weren't stellar to say the least. This caused original drummer, Tommy Ramone, to leave the band as the drummer and instead take up position as producer for the band's fourth LP, 1978's Road To Ruin. This also started the band's quest for a chart topping album, something that some Ramones fans would say is summed up by the title of this album.

However, the music on this album is not the sound of a band simply striving for radio success, despite what some critics at the time said. Instead, while Road To Ruin is not necessarily the band's strongest outing, it does show a lot of improvement in terms of variety and (as with Rocket To Russia) songwriting. In fact, one has to remember that the first four Ramones albums were all written in two years time, which would make it hard for even the most creative bands to keep fresh, but lo and behold, The Ramones managed to do it near flawlessly.

Emphasis on near; while Road To Ruin has some of my favorite songs in the Ramones catalog thus far, it also features the most played out tracks as well. In fact, I think the first two tracks are actually kind of boring, not bad, just kind of 'meh'. This has a lot to do with the fact that they remind me too much of other Ramones songs. For example, the opener "I Just Want To Have Something To Do" recycles the riff from the track "I Don't Care" from the last LP, albeit using it in a far more interesting song.

But I'd say the highs on this LP are just as high if not higher than they were on Rocket. "Don't Come Close" is a bouncy tune that incorporates some newly employed rhythm guitars and Joey Ramones' vocals are more melodic than ever before. Such is the case with other tracks on this LP, like the Searchers cover "Needles And Pins" and the longest track the band had released at this point, "Questioningly" which even has a bonfide guitar solo in it! Also, while the band was playing with more melodic 'ballads' they didn't forget to inject that raw punk energy from previous albums, with tracks like "I'm Against It" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" searing with white hot punk gusto.

The main complaints that are usually directed at this LP are that the album was too soft, or that the band was only incorporating new sounds to try and sell their album to a wider audience. And sure, that may be true, but as long at it yields an enjoyable album, motives don't really matter to me, and Road To Ruin is just that, a very enjoyable album. Still, I'd say this is the weakest LP thus far in the band's discography, mostly due to the LPs slow start.

9.0/10