Search - Ramones :: Road to Ruin (Dlx)

The Ramones' Best (?)

tashcrash | South Shore, MA | 07/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't listen to the likes of Legs McNeil (whose inappropriate liner notes all but damn this album as some kind of sell-out. Note to Rhino: why be so apologetic?). The fact is, you can pretty much defend any Ramones album as being their best, well beyond the indisputable classics of the 1970s (my other favorites - "Halfway to Sanity," "Brain Drain," and "Adios Amigos," none of which are considered great by allegedly in-the-know rock critics). In many ways, "Road to Ruin" is their best album, the one that truly marks the end of an era for the band, their euphoric highs with their disenchanted lows. It mixes strung-out nihilism with gooey bubblegum so deftly that its simplicity, once again, somehow managed to fly way over people's heads. In any case, the greatest punk was founded on bubblegum aesthetics, and the Ramones knew this better than anyone on the planet at the time...and "It's A Long Way Back" is the greatest album closer ever."

The Ramones Best Album Ever!

Rick Devore | Butler, Pa. | 12/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I'm elected President of the United States, my first act will be to provide every American with a copy of "Road To Ruin." Even an old aficionado of hippy music like me understands that the Ramones are one of America's great rock and roll treasures. In fact, they were the last truly great American rock band. This is the album to hear if you doubt my words. Put this one in your CD player and turn it way up. You'll soon forget about death metal, grunge, rap and all that other crap that kids listen to these days. You'll be taken back to the fun and innocence of the mid-sixties reinvented into slamming, rocking anthems for more modern times. Road to Ruin combines some of the Ramones very best rockers with three very well-done ballads, including an excellent remake of "Needles And Pins" by The Searchers. The sound quality of this album is superb and I believe there are some studio musicians at work in the background. My opinion of the Ramones recorded output is that there were a few great songs on every album, which added up to an impressive catalog overall, but Road To Ruin is the only one that kills it from beginning to end. It's hard to believe that three of the Ramones are gone already. They named a street in New York City for Joey Ramone. The least you can do is buy a copy of Road To Ruin in his honor. (Don't wait for me to be elected President.)"

The End of the Beginning

J. Martin | Portland, OR USA | 03/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Contrary to what some fans and critics believe, "Road to Ruin" is not the last great Ramones album. It is, however, the final album of the band's classic period. It's also the sound of a band trying hard to bust out of the cult basement, maybe realizing that the stripped-to-the-bones punk sound of its first three LPs wasn't going to crack the Top 40 after all.



Which is not to say that "Road to Ruin" is a sellout. Sure, there are a pair of tunes ("Don't Come Close" and "Questioningly") that veer far away from the Ramone-defining buzzsaw guitar sound. But, given the band's obvious love for bubblegum and 60s pop, even the (stellar) cover of "Needles and Pins" doesn't seem such a stretch.



And the rest of the tunes? Well, they're the kind of full-on, jet-fueled rockers you'd expect from the Ramones, but with just a dose of the grim realization that the years ahead may not be filled with limos, champagne and other perks of rock stardom. There are nods to punk boredom ("I Just Wanna Have Something To Do"), an angry kiss-off ("I Don't Want You") and rock's all-time most cryptic ode to angst and desparation ("It's a Long Way Back.") In the hands of a lesser band, such sentiments could result in a depressing record, indeed. But if the Ramones knew anything, it was how to write a catchy tune. And on "Road to Ruin," their pop sense overpowers any hint of punk negativity from start to finish. Along the way, we even get some boy-meets-girl Ramones ("She's the One") and the closest thing the band has probably ever had to a Classic Rock/FM Radio staple ("I Wanna Be Sedated"). And, like the songs themselves, the production of "Road to Ruin" foreshadows future Ramones releases. It's a more muscular sound than on the first three albums with bigger drums, louder guitars.



The Ramones did in fact have more great albums up their leather sleeves in the ensuing years, but for any fan, it's hard not to see "Road to Ruin" as a turning point. This is probably the first album on which the Ramones understood that they had become THE RAMONES - and that any respect this brought was met in equal measure with heartache, inner turmoil and the indifference of the record-buying public. It's the first album on which the band toyed just a bit with its formula in search of a hit, and the last on which the boys reasonably hoped they might go gold without resorting to more extreme, Spectorized measures. And it was probably the last album the Ramones recorded before figuring out that to make a go of this punk rock thing, they'd have to earn their bread and butter by keeping an ungodly tour schedule - a neverending series of one-nighters they'd keep up till damn near the end of their lives. Road to ruin, indeed."