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''Red Letter Days'' is The Wallflowers fourth album, which peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200. RLD was the first Wallflowers record that featured Jakob Dylan 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. The first single and only music video shot was for "When You're On Top." Though the album contains some profanity in "Everybody Out of the Water", it does not carry the Parental Advisory sticker. - Wikipedia
On the Wallflowers' last album, 2000's Breach, band leaderJakob Dylan finally demonstrated a comfort level, musically, with being BobDylan's son. Now, on the group's fourth album, he gets to tackle anothercareer lesson—rebounding from adversity and commercial disappointment.
Breach didn't fare nearly as well as Bringing Down the Horse,the Grammy-winning, four-times platinum set that preceded it. Given that, itwouldn't have been wrong to expect Red Letter Days to be more methodicaland carefully drawn out, a deliberate-minded work designed to get the Wallflowersback on the sales track. Instead, however, Dylan and his cohorts have produceda rollicking, open and loose dozen songs that sound as fresh as a baby bandon its first album and as confident as a group following up a smash hit.
Produced by original Wallflowers guitarist Tobi Miller and his partner, BillAppleberry (Adema), Red Letter Days is energetic and largely optimistic;"You won't believe how good it can get," Dylan crows in the album'ssecond song, while in the rocking "If You Never Got Sick" he declaresthat "You'll see me dead before you see me quit." And even whenhe travels darker emotional terrain, Dylan embraces the silver lining and theclouds with the energetic arrangements of tracks such as the defiant "EverythingI Need" and the unrepentant "See You When I Get There." Leadguitarist Michael Ward might be gone, but Dylan fills in admirably and getssome help from Pearl Jam's Mike McCready on several tracks.
The quieter fare works, too, as the Wallflowers float through moody, texturedpieces like "Closer to You," "Feels Like Summer Again,"the Elvis Costello-esque "Health and Happiness" and the particularlypretty "Three Ways," with its evocatively layered guitars. WhetherRed Letter Days returns the group to previous glories is irrelevant; this isan occasion where creative achievement truly belies any commercial considerations.