Appeal To Reason (album)

''Appeal to Reason'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Rise Against. It was released on October 7, 2008. A melodic hardcore album, ''Appeal to Reason'' marked a musical shift from the gritty punk sound that had previously defined the band's career to what some have viewed as a more radio-friendly sound, with greater emphasis on production and bigger, more anthemic choruses. The album's lyrics primarily focus on political issues in the United States, such as the Iraq War and the Bush administration.

Rise Against began recording ''Appeal to Reason'' in January 2008 at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado. Producers Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore incorporated soft tones into many of the songs to elicit a darker feel to the music. It is the band's first album with guitarist Zach Blair. ''Appeal to Reason'' debuted at number three on the ''Billboard'' 200, and was Rise Against's highest-charting album until the release of '' Endgame'' in 2011. The album sold 64,700 copies in its first week of release, and was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting shipments of 500,000 copies.

The album produced three singles: " Re-Education (Through Labor)", " Audience of One", and "Savior". All three songs charted highly on the Modern Rock Tracks chart; "Savior" in particular, held the record for the most consecutive weeks spent on both the Hot Rock Songs and Modern Rock Tracks charts, with sixty-three and sixty-five weeks respectively.

Background and recording

In July 2006, Rise Against released their fourth studio album '' The Sufferer & the Witness'', which became their first album to chart within the top ten on the '' Billboard 200''. To promote the album, Rise Against embarked on an extensive tour that concluded at the Jingle Bell Rock festival in December 2007. That month, the band members reconvened to begin writing and demoing songs for their next album ''Appeal to Reason''. According to bassist Joe Principe, Rise Against recorded ''Appeal to Reason'' over a two-month period starting in January 2008, which was the longest the band had ever spent on one album.

''Appeal to Reason'' was recorded at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, with producers Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore. This was the third album the duo had produced for Rise Against. Lead vocalist Tim McIlrath said: "Bill and Jason are never content to do whatever they did last month. They always want to do something different...They know us, and they know what we're capable of, they know what sounds like Rise Against, what doesn't sound like Rise Against." Livermore wanted to include soft tones to many of the songs, such as using an EBow on "Whereabouts Unknown", to elicit a darker feel to the music. For the more aggressive songs, the band members used several amplifier combinations, such as a Bogner and a Marshall Kerry King head. The band members recorded their instruments in different rooms, and the producers used overdubbing to combine the instruments into one song.

''Appeal to Reason'' was the first Rise Against album to feature guitarist Zach Blair, who joined while the band was touring in support of ''The Sufferer & the Witness''. According to Blair, "I wanted to go in as, If you listen to every record this band (Rise Against) had out, you could tell that Zach Blair played on this record". He took influence from how Nels Cline sounded on the album ''Sky Blue Sky'' when he joined Wilco. Blair was already well acquainted with Stevenson before joining Rise Against, as he and Stevenson were in the band Only Crime from 2003 to 2007. Stevenson helped Blair replicate the sound of past Rise Against guitarists.

Musical style and themes

For Rise Against, ''Appeal to Reason'' marked a musical shift from the gritty punk rock that had previously defined their career, to a more accessible sound, with greater emphasis on production value. '' The New York Times'' felt the album was more tune-oriented than the band's previous works, while John Hanson of Sputnikmusic said that the album is "'appealing' to a larger audience than old fans will be comfortable with". Bill Stewart of '' PopMatters'' disagreed with these sentiments, writing: "''Appeal to Reason'' is a Rise Against album. If you possess more than a passing familiarity with the band, I wouldn't even bother scrolling through the rest of this review, and I'd certainly avoid checking out the rating at the end of it—because that first sentence, for better or worse, says everything that needs to be said about this album." Critics have characterized the album's music as melodic hardcore, with influences of pop punk.

The majority of the album's lyrics discuss political issues in the United States. Jeff Miers of '' The Buffalo News'' calls the album "a response to the oppressive vacuousness of the Bush years". In regards to specific tracks on the album, AllMusic states that Rise Against "rages against the moral decay rotting the core of the U.S. on the opening 'Collapse (Post-Amerika),' just as they strike out against the slow dumbing down of America on ' Re-Education (Through Labor)'". In addition to political topics, more personal issues constitute a large portion of the lyrical content. "Savior" is about forgiveness and broken relationships, while "The Dirt Whispered" is about the need to sacrifice for what a person loves. Bassist Joe Principe said, "The political side of this band is just that -- it's a side. There are political lyrics. There are social awareness and there are lyrics about the environment. I think if people take the time to read the lyrics, they'll know we're not strictly force feeding you our politics."

The album includes one acoustic song, "Hero of War", which is about an Iraq War Veteran looking back on his war experiences. It is described by '' Rolling Stone'' as an "ambivalent aggro-folk track". McIlrath said of the song, "I wanted to take the perspective of 'What is the war going to be looked back on as?'"008