Artist: Ringside
Album: Ringside
Label: Flawless/Geffen
Tracks: 12
Length: 48:30

Review by: Mark Fisher

 

 

 

 

Ringside is a brand new band and their chosen path is one few have treaded before, perhaps because it just doesn’t work or perhaps because it’s so hard to do: reasoning on that one will depend greatly on your musical tastes. The band is compromised of head honcho Scott Thomas and actor Balthazar Getty (from Lord of the Flies among other things...) who contributes beats and other such things.

 

The Ringside sound is pretty laid back and is led by Thomas’ swaggering vocals. The album has a strong vibe to it and because of that this works more like an album and less like a collection of singles. All of the songs stay in the same general vein and build upon each other, with each one being just a little better than the last musically and lyrically (not necessarily vocally though).  The R&B influence here is probably the most dominant piece of the bands sound but when combined with their hip hop, house, and modern rock influences it creates and atmosphere that brings to mind bands like U2 and New Radicals. As a matter of fact, if New Radicals were Bono’s side project and it was released in 2005, it would probably sound a lot like Ringside.

 

This is a pretty decent album. It’s enough to get your attention but it’s also something that may not hold up well over a long period of time. Scott Thomas has a great voice and that is 99% of what will sell you, but there’s not a lot of variety in how he sings. When he really belts it out, like on “Cold on Me” and “Miss You”, he really grabs you and draws you into the song. When he doesn’t really sound like he’s going for it, he’s enjoyable but the song easily fades into the background. All I think this needs is something that really reaches out and grabs you and refuses to let you go. It lacks a killer instinct I think. I’m interested to hear more from these guys because I think it could go either way from here.

 

I have to go find my New Radicals CD now…