The Richie Sambora & Orianthi album

I might not have seen that as derogatory but you're right, let's move on

Yeah, I'll refrain from anything untill I have a listen myself. Taste is subjective as one's person's meat is another man's poison. The strange thing is - some songs do sound better with time so initial shock and dissapointment can change into something completely different.

Welcome to my world!

I think it's because there must be an unwritten rule somewhere that if you are pro-Richie (which I am), it follows, by necessity, that you must be anti-Jon (which I'm not).

Ya get used to it, though, so I wouldn't worry about it. But I wouldn't bother trying to deny it either. Trust me, it's a waste of time. 😌

But regardless of the reason, it did seem as if you were dismissing the point, which is what you were implying that others shouldn't do. Not that it was a big deal. I was just kidding you because I thought it was funny. ��

That said, however, it does seem that whenever certain people mention Jon, in an otherwise "Richie" discussion, you tend to interpret their comments as an attempt to justify Richie, or to make him look better in some way, by putting Jon down. But many times it's just a comparison, or another example, and nothing more.

Moving on to catch up with the rest of you...

Hang on... I thought Gary Barlow wrote Beautiful Day and Jon just sang on it?

Anyway, moving on... The audio is not great on the copy I've listened to so I'm keen to hear higher quality versions before I make any final-ish judgments. Hopefully this is the first in a series though, and it's not 3 years or something before the next 5 tracks turn up.

In the page of Streaming it said EP1:RISE.

Tracklist:
1 Rise
2 Masterpiece
3 Truth
4 Take Me
5 Good Times

This one will be the first launch.

My apologies

Anyone wanna send the songs? I tried the link that was provided but ****ed it up and now I cant 't restart. Very curious about the tracks so would be very grateful for any kind of help.

The muddy sound of it all might be due to the leak, but the main melody from Rise is pretty buried due to all the stuff going on. Sounds overtly busy and almost like the track is too fast; overall, can't say it's overtly memorable or catchy that way.

Masterpiece sounds a lot more generic, but the melody is catchier. Richie's vocals after the first chorus (or towards its end) cut through nicely.

Truth sounds like a cross between a Def Leppard ballad and a typical 90s RnB/boyband ballad. Great vocals by Richie, but pretty nondescript song. Ending also sounds pretty rushed.

Take Me sounds like a cross between Adele & stuff like Time Waits For No One by the Stones. Could have used a more standoutish chorus; it sounds like it's tailor-made for Jon's phrasing instead of Richie's (drawn out taaaaake me, instead of a bluesy stutter) and would have worked BEAUTIFUL with harmonies between the two. Not original (did somebody compare it to Santana?), but the track that works the best.

Also, as for "did you expect stuff that sounds like Bon Jovi" - well, yeah? Didn't Richie complain he couldn't do the stuff he wanted to do and that Bon Jovi used to do in the band anymore? So he leaves the band and... doesn't do that at all. His previous solo albums (which were done when he had an outlet for the BJ sounding stuff with that very band) sounded more like BJ than this. Only Good Times & Rise sound remotely like BJ, with the former like a cross between Lost Highway-era pop country and regular radio pop, and the latter... well, Bounce-era penis rock, only without the hook.


Verdict: Underwhelmed, especially given who this is from and how long it took them.

I was worried from reading here but I really like what I hear. It's good to see Richie trying something new and taking a few left turns we didn't see coming.

Didn't care much for Rise. A standard "rocker" simply because they need a song like that. Quite lame riff and definetely the lamest song.

Masterpiece and Truth are my two favorites. The groove in Masterpiece is great, couldn't help but tap my foot when it started. Nice vocal melodies and and the chorus is great. Seems to have some hit potential. I can imagine it will be nice live with more live sounding drums and distorted guitars.
Truth was great as well. All in all a pretty standard ballad with the most used chord structure in any Bon Jovi-related but I like the chorus a lot and the way it is prodcued with the drum beat and synth bass. Would be cool if the full band would have kicked in for the last chorus with some heavy guitars and real drums. But still a great track.

Take Me sounded like an intro theme from a Netflix series or something. It has a nice groove. Richie (and Orianthi) seems to have worked with the rhytmic aspect of their music with these songs. In Bon Jovi it's more or less standard four on floor beats all the way, but here it's a little different. Take Me is a little boring, starts out nice but is quite bland. Would have liked a bigger chorus but I guess Richie was going for this kind of theme.

Good Times is a standard feel good song so no use over analyzing it. Sounds a little too much High School Musical. If Orianthi would have sung it by herself it could have been the theme song to any girly teenage/high school movie. I do like it though but nothing that will change the course of the world. I like the brass section. The rap part, meh, doesn't really add anything so I'm not that fond over it.