Blue-Sky Research is the third studio album by American alternative metal band Taproot. It was released on August 15, 2005 internationally and a day later in the United States. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan co-wrote three songs on the album. Jonah Matranga from Far and Onelinedrawing co-wrote "Calling". The band wrote over 80 songs for the effort. "Calling" was released as the first single and reached No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart, while the second single, "Birthday", reached No. 39. It is Taproot's last album with Atlantic Records, as both parties had decided to part ways. It has a more melodic sound compared to the band's two previous albums, and sold over 150,000 copies in the U.S.
Critical reception
Blue-Sky Research garnered mixed reviews from music critics who admired the genre shift and lush production but found it wasted with angst-filled lyrics. Corey Hoffy of AbsolutePunk praised the album for Wright's stellar production, the band's controlled instrumentation and Richards's lyrics approaching close to political territory, concluding that "this remains their most complex and best album to date." Vik Bansal of musicOMH praised the band for taking a melodic approach to the record along with their standard nu-metal formula, concluding that "Depending on your point of view, Blue-Sky Research will either come across as hopelessly unfocused or else one of the more ambitious and versatile rock albums to emerge for quite a while. With the consistent strength of the tunes here, I lean towards the latter." Johnny Loftus of AllMusic found the self-deprecating lyrics formulaic at times but found the contributions of Corgan and Matranga to the record a nice addition to the band's improved musicianship, saying that "even without the hired guns Blue-Sky Research is the most dynamic Taproot album yet (the self-penned "So Eager" proves that), and the album's heightened textures and less predictable turns successfully updates the band's sound." Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard said that despite the band adding elements of modern rock and electronica to its brand of nu-metal, the album's songs get "dragged down by melodrama and the kind of adenoidal choruses that Incubus do much better." Mikael Wood, writing for Blender, felt that the band was starting to become a relic of its given genre, saying that "On their third album, their lean Everydude grind—processed guitars stacked atop booming arena-rock drums—probes their feelings of insignificance in an all-too-workmanlike fashion."