The Rise The Ride The Risk

A tablespoon of rock, 2 tablespoons of pop, a teaspoon of pop-rock, with a dash of country would be the ingredients to the songs being sung by Mike Ruocco on his album The Rise, The Ride, The Risk. His music has a mixture of all the genres but the core sound would be a pop-rock over all the rest. All the songs have a soft beat to them where the levels hardly ever go up too loud. Listening to the 11 songs on the album was almost like listening to someone that was trying to scream but in a whispered tone. It has the potential of being loud but there’s also this hushed sound under that potential loudness.
This soft sound or levels, that the songs have mainly come from the vocals of Mike Ruocco rather than the instruments. His voice is soft, even when he’s being loud, he has a soft voice that makes the sound of the songs soft. Add in the emotional side to the lyrics and what the songs on The Rise, The Ride, The Risk end up having a mellow feel to them. Though the songs are not mellow, this album is still a rock/pop album with songs that have semi quick beats to them. It’s not a high energy set of songs on the album but the songs didn’t get boring either.
Mike Ruocco has a strong voice for what he’s singing where he makes all the songs on this album to be good radio songs. What I didn’t like about the songs though is that I kept waiting for the songs to kick into a higher gear, to pump out some more energy and power in them, but I was left wanting because that energy and power never came. What power in the songs is on the lines of the lyrics where Mike Ruocco gives an impression on his relationships and love life. It’s all the lyrics about either being in love or breaking up that also give the songs a softer edge to them and what makes me not have much of a connection to what I was listening to. Maybe if I had broken up with someone or just being in love then I would enjoy the songs more, but I’m not in either of those points so the songs just came across as being someone else’s story that I was disconnected with.