''Red Letter Days'' is the fourth album by

The Wallflowers The Wallflowers is an American rock solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. The band h ...

, released in 2002.

History

The album peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200. ''Red Letter Days'' was the first Wallflowers record that featured

Jakob Dylan Jakob Luke Dylan (born December 9, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter. He rose to fame as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the rock band the Wallflowers. Born in New York City to musician Bob Dylan and model Sara Lownds, Dylan beg ...

playing a majority of the lead guitar parts. The album had a much more aggressive sound than any of their previous releases, especially the song "Everybody Out of the Water," which they performed on '' The Late Late Show with

Craig Kilborn Craig Lawrence Kilborn (born August 24, 1962) is an American comedian, sports and political commentator, actor, and television host. Kilborn began a career in sports broadcasting in the late 1980s, leading to an anchoring position at ESPN's ''Spo ...

''. The first single and only music video shot was for "When You're On Top." Although the album contains some profanity (in "Everybody Out of the Water"), it does not carry the

Parental Advisory Advisory (abbreviated PAL) is a warning label introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1985 and adopted by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 2011. It is placed on audio recordings in recognition of profan ...

sticker. It was produced by the band's first guitarist Tobi Miller. Up to May 2005, ''Red Letter Days'' had sold 208,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan. After years of fetching hundreds of dollars for an original pressing on the open market, ''Red Letter Days'' was reissued on LP for its 15th anniversary on November 3, 2017.

Reception

The album received a score of 63 out of 100 from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "generally positive reviews."

RollingStone Rollingstone may refer to several locations: * Rollingstone, Queensland, Australia * Rollingstone, Minnesota, U.S. * Rollingstone Creek Rollingstone Creek is a stream in Winona County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Rollingstone Creek is the f ...

called it "a straightforward barnburner of an album" while Mojo commented that "The Wallflowers make some of the best radio-friendly hooks and melodies around." In retrospect, singer Jakob Dylan has mixed feelings about the album. He told

Uproxx ''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...

that "That record is difficult for me to listen to. I don’t think it sounds as good as the other records. There’s a sheen to that record that confuses me...I do like the songs on it quite a bit and I play some of those songs still. But as a record, I feel like we may have veered off the path a little bit."

Track listing

All songs written by

# "When You're on Top" – 3:54 # "How Good It Can Get" – 4:11 # "Closer to You" – 3:17 # "Everybody Out of the Water" – 3:42 # "Three Ways" – 4:19 # "Too Late to Quit" – 3:54 # "If You Never Got Sick" – 3:44 # "Health and Happiness" – 4:03 # "See You When I Get There" – 3:09 # "Feels Like Summer Again" – 3:48 # "Everything I Need" – 3:37 # "Here in Pleasantville" – 4:10 # "Empire in My Mind" (hidden track) – 3:32 Japanese bonus tracks #

"Empire in My Mind" (Original version) #" (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" (

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...

'', and "The Empire in My Mind" was the main theme of the television series ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' for its second and third seasons.

Personnel

The Wallflowers *

Mario Calire Mario Calire is an American drummer, based in Los Angeles, known for his affiliations with The Wallflowers and Ozomatli and his wide-ranging freelance work. A native of Buffalo, New York, Calire moved to California when his father, the keyboard ...

– drums, backing vocals *

– guitars, lead and backing vocals *

Rami Jaffee Rami Jaffee (born March 11, 1969) is an American musician. He is best known as the keyboardist for the rock band Foo Fighters, whom he initially joined in a touring and session capacity in 2005. Jaffee has contributed to six of the band's studi ...

– keyboards *Greg Richling – bass guitar Additional personnel *

Rusty Anderson Rusty Anderson is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who is best known for his work as the lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's touring band though he has worked with an extensive list of artists in addition to his own solo career. Car ...

– Guitar *Jamie Caliri – Art direction, packaging, photography * David Campbell – String arrangements *

Lenny Castro Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''L ...

– Percussion *Marina Chavez – Cover photo *Ed Churney – Mixing *Femio Hernández – Assistant engineer *Courtney Kaiser – Background vocals *Ken Kraus – Legal advisor *Bill Lane – Engineer, engineering consultant *

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1963) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at The Hit Factory in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground f ...

– Mixing *

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

– Mastering *

Val McCallum Valentine McCallum (born 10 October 1963) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Career McCallum has toured with, and served as a studio musician for many well-known musicians. He toured with Jackson Browne, and McCallum's musical resume ...

– Guitar *

Mike McCready Michael David McCready (born April 5, 1966) is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the band. McCready wa ...

– Guitar *Moe Z M.D. – Background vocals *Ben Peeler – Lap steel guitar *Dave Reed – Engineer *Bob Salcedo – Engineer *Louie Teran – Editing *Darrell Thorp – Assistant engineer *Rich Tosi – Assistant engineer *Robert Vosgien – Mastering *Miles Wilson – Assistant engineer *Ed Wong – Studio technician

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2002 albums Interscope Records albums The Wallflowers albums Albums arranged by David Campbell (composer) Albums recorded at Sound City Studios