THE RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS

Am I the Enemy

[Collective Sounds]

Florida’s Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has spent its career splitting the difference between the singsongy vocals of pop-punk and hoarse screaming and frenzied drum bursts of hardcore. The band’s latest further refines the formula on 11 songs that mix the personal and political. Opener “Salvation” tackles the former with an exhortation to persevere through teen angst, while the galloping title track sneers at a culture of greed and calculating politicians. If that sounds a little like Green Day’s American Idiot, well, yes—although Am I the Enemy is no concept album. Rather, these are snapshots of longing paired with disillusion, often within the same song: “Where Are the Heroes” veers from terse vocals screamed over pounding rhythm to a hooky chorus that soars over the tumult below. The seesaw shifts are a bit much by the end of the album, but there’s nearly always a catchy melody threading its way through the gut-punch guitars. –ED