''The Downward Road'' is the third album by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...

band The Pursuit of Happiness, released in 1993. The album peaked at #36 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

. The album cover has several versions with different coloured backgrounds (red, blue, yellow and others). For the recording of ''The Downward Road'', the band spent nearly three months in Los Angeles under the direction of producer

Ed Stasium Ed Stasium is an American record producer and audio engineer, who has worked on albums by the Ramones, Talking Heads, Motörhead, the Smithereens and Living Colour. History Stasium began his recording career in 1970 fronting the band Brandywine. ...

. The recording process marked a departure from the band's first two albums, ''Love Junk'' and ''One Sided Story'', which were recorded in ten days and two-and-a-half weeks, respectively, at Todd Rundgren's Utopia Sound Studios in Lake Hill, New York. Berg explained the difference in recording processes: "We did the first record with Todd (Rundgren) in three weeks. Whereas the record we did with Ed almost took three months. That was the first difference. The second was that Todd really went for the live thing. We all played together, and everything went down at the same time live, except for the vocals and guitar solos. Ed, on the other hand, is more conventional. That sounds odd ... but the way records are made now is the way Ed makes them, with more sweating on the details." The two-and-a-half year interval between the release of ''The Downward Road'' and the band's previous effort, ''One Sided Story'', was due to several factors, including the band's changing labels from Chrysalis to Mercury, waiting for producer Stasium to become available, and - finally - Mercury's shelving of the album for six months so it could be released in the new year.

Track listing

All songs written by

Moe Berg Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, ...

, except as noted. #"Downward Road (Intro)" (0:26) (

Roebuck Staples Roebuck may refer to: Animals *Roe buck or roebuck, a male roe deer People * Alvah Curtis Roebuck (1864–1948), American businessman, co-founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company * Daniel Roebuck (born 1963), American television film actor, writer a ...

) #"Cigarette Dangles" (2:32) #"Nobody But Me" (3:20) #"I'm Ashamed of Myself" (3:48) #"Pressing Lips" (3:33) #"In Her Dreams" (3:18) #"Downward Road" (Revisited)" (3:12) #"Heavy Metal Tears" (2:31) #"Bored of You" (3:18) #"Love Theme from TPOH" (3:29) #"Forbidden World" (4:03) #"But I Do" (4:23) #"Crashing Down" (3:47) #"Honeytime" (3:08) #"Villa in Portugal" (3:28) (Berg,

Jules Shear Jules Mark Shear (born March 7, 1952) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He wrote the Cyndi Lauper hit single " All Through the Night" and The Bangles' hit "If She Knew What She Wants", and charted a hit as a performer with "Stead ...

) #"Terrified" (3:16)

Personnel

- guitar, vocals * Kris Abbott - vocals, guitar * Brad Barker - bass * Dave Gilby - drums ;Additional musicians *

Paul McCandless Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. (born March 24, 1947) is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute and soprano saxop ...

- oboe solo (12) * Rachel Oldfield - vocals *

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...

- guitar solo (10) *

- percussion

References

1993 albums The Pursuit of Happiness (band) albums Albums produced by Ed Stasium Mercury Records albums {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub