Road to Ruin

Road to Ruin is the "I Wanna be Sedated" album, complete with several songs to keep your mind at bay while waiting for "I Wanna Be Sedated" to play...


Road to Ruin is actually one of the Ramones' best albums and a successful experiment towards a poppier sound.This is the 4th Ramones studio album, with Marky making his drumming debut and the team of Tommy Ramone and Ed Stasium take the helm as producers.The album is slower than the prior three albums, but it does not make the boys sound any less stronger than they were before. In fact, I would say that some songs benefit from the decreased speed as it helps them add moods.

There are great songs on this album - I find the opener, "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do" to be one of the boy's finest songwriting  and musical moments. The song gives a cool, desperate vibe despite it being a slower than the usual Ramones song. The cover of "Needles and Pins" is something that could have worked in End of the Century, but I found it a bit of out place  if it wasn't for the mental theme that permeates this album. Joey is great on those types of songs and it's still a good cover, but I can't say that it feels like a Ramones song. "Questioningly" troubles me because it's another good song, but the sound is more of a Joey thing and I think there's even an acoustic guitar and solo in there (even though Dee Dee wrote this song...). "Bad Brain" is a bit lazy, but it's short so no long-term damage is done. "She's the One" is my personal favorite as it's a short, sweet love song but done in the classic Ramones speed and it's over before you know it. Finally, "I Wanna Be Sedated" is the classic Ramones track (and the only Ramones song other than "Blitzkrieg Bop" that's in rotation on the radio stations in my area.) about Joey's boredom and willingness to be knocked out of consciousness. The song still packs the punch without a bit of staleness and age.

If you listen to the Ramones chronologically, this album is clearly the beginning of the inevitable change towards the Pop-Ramones. The boys still had a good grasp with their situation as the songwriting has all the crispness as before, but there are parts where a few bells and whistles are added and I strongly think there's a few solos in here (or maybe they're extended leads...Johnny probably didn't do those). The problem that this album has is that it is always bundled with the first three as the best albums the boys would ever make, but the sound is different enough to push towards the Pop era, thereby forcing its position in a type of limbo between the Early Ramones and Pop-Ramones. Outside of "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" survived on live shows, and "It's a Long Way Back" is more of a fan-classic than a huge song. The album is good enough without having to bundle it with the first three or just mentioning it because of "I Wanna Be Sedated".

UP NEXT: We return to the Pop-Ramones era with Pleasant Dreams...