''Alone in a Crowd'' is the second album by Catch 22, and the first and only studio album featuring the band's second lineup (featuring Jeff Davidson as lead vocalist, replacing

Tomas Kalnoky Tomas Kalnoky (born December 24, 1980) is a Czechoslovak-born American musician. He is the lead singer/guitarist and songwriter of the bands Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, and goes by the pseudonym Toh Kay as a sol ...

). It was recorded in June 2000, and released on October 10, 2000.

Composition

The album features a song trilogy, "What Goes Around Comes Around," "Bloomfield Avenue," and "Neverending Story," which follows two young lovers who commit multiple acts of homicide on a cross-country spree before finally succumbing to their own personal demons. Themes on the album include a longing for childhood and home, and a general feeling of alienation from the rest of the world. The end of the album features seven blank tracks, each 22 seconds long, followed by a bonus track that starts after 22 seconds of silence, bringing the album to a total of 22 tracks.

Release

To promote the album, the band made a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Point the Blame", the album's first single. However, due to financial problems, the video was never completed. The band closed the year touring the US with

Reel Big Fish Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California. The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold-certified album '' Turn the Radio Off''. So ...

. In March 2001, the band toured across Canada with

AFI AFI may refer to: * Actual flip-angle imaging, a type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2017 album), the tenth ...

. In May and June 2001, the band toured Europe as part of the

Deconstruction Tour Deconstruction Tour was a one-day punk music and skate festival that was staged in various countries across Europe. It first took place in 1999 and occurred annually until 2006. The tour was arranged by Destiny Tourbooking. In general, the tour o ...

. On January 30, 2016, Jeff Davidson joined the band to perform the album in full at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ.

Track listing

*If you take the seconds of the CD length and subtract the minutes from it, the difference is 22, adding to the other, almost subliminal, 22s found throughout the album.

Personnel

Catch 22

*Jeff Davidson -

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

*Pat Kays -

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Ryan Eldred Catch 22 is an American ska punk band from East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. The band was formed in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tomas Kalnoky, who left the band in 1998 and later formed Streetlight Manifesto. Founding members rema ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

*Kevin Gunther -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, backing vocals *Mike Soprano -

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

, backing vocals *Chris Greer -

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

* Pat Calpin -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

Additional personnel

Jamey Jasta James Vincent Shanahan (born August 7, 1977), known professionally as Jamey Jasta, is an American vocalist, best known as the lead singer of metalcore band Hatebreed and sludge metal band Kingdom of Sorrow. Jasta also fronts metalcore band Ic ...

- vocals ''(track 9)'' * Tony Brummel - gang vocals *Kevin Gunther Sr. - guitar solo ''(track 11)'' *Vinnie Nobile - additional trombone ''(tracks 3 - 5, 8)'' *Sam "Samuri" Lee -

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

''(tracks 4 and 8)'' *Vanessa Eldred - violin ''(tracks 4 and 8)'' *Jenn Smull -

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

''(tracks 4 and 8)'' *Jon Crane -

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

''(tracks 4 and 8)'' *"The 22 Will Drop You" crew - gang vocals *Alan Douches - mastering *Erin Farley - assistant engineer *Patrick Larson - art direction, layout *Jamie Egan - additional producer, arrangement ''(strings)''

References

{{Authority control 2000 albums Catch 22 (band) albums Victory Records albums