I’ll admit that I came a little bit late to the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus party. Yes, they were a band I had heard about but I never really sat down to listen to their music until I saw how many of my colleagues were excited about the fact they were touring Australia at one time. When I asked them why they felt that way the response seemed to be an over-whelming “this is one of the greatest live bands that you will ever see.”
As it turns out they are not just one of the best live bands going around but are some of the best song-writers as well. You can seriously get lost listening to the lyrics from their brand new Emergency EP. You sit there, listening and nodding as you agree to everything that Ronne Winter is singing, but you also feel like a voyeur as it feels like you are reading the guy’s diary – that is how personal the lyrics are here. Mix that with the amazing guitar work of Josh Burke and Randy Winter and the right mix of heavy music with a hint of electronica and you soon get a perfect track like “Stuck On Repeat.”
Personal lyrics are the forte of this EP though. “A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Called LA” sees Winter perfectly capture the night that he met his wife and the track is destined to become a live favourite because of its stunning melody. Then there is “Don’t Buy Into It” which is political but delivers its point well.
The thought provoking lyrics continue on “Is This The Real World” which makes you think about the world around us, while Winter’s screams take Red Jumpsuit Apparatus into some of the heaviest territory that they have been into during their careers. That aggression continues on the start of “Please, Unfriend Me” which then turns to mellow vocals as Winters sums up the Covid-19 lockdown in a way that no other song-writer has been able to so far.
The highlight of this EP though is “Brace Yourself.” Everything comes together perfectly on this track. Burke and Winter are on fire, as they throughout the EP – seriously this is some of their finest work to date – while Winters’ naked style of singing reminds us all one he is one of the finest front-men going around at the moment.
It is hard to know how the band have picked any singles off this album because truthfully every track is good enough to have a life of its own on radio. The Emergency EP is some of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ best work and is a must have for their fans.
