This is the Swiss/Canadian melodic rockers fourth studio album. They have been compared to the likes of Gotthard, and with producer Darren Grahn at the helm, this is certainly a very professional-sounding CD,

Ride Into The Sun was one of my favourite tracks; it was quite mellow with a heavier chorus, and it had a good melody and nice backing vocals. Most of the songs are this kind of gentle, melodic rock, and even on more heavy songs such as Chaincrusher and Healer, they never stray too far from this formula.

There are two instrumentals on the album- Cunning Plan, and the strangely titled Polish My Ferrari, which is simply a piano piece. Both songs seem to fit into the flow of the album quite well.

Of course, every melodic rock album has to have a ballad, and in Ride’s case this is No One’s Home. The chorus is really nice, but it lacks the guitars that would make it into a proper power ballad- like many songs on the album it’s just too quiet somehow whereas the band really seem to get going on the louder songs such as Sincere and the album opener Lifechanges, which has some good harmonies.

Overall this was an okay album; it’s never going to set the world on fire, but it’s a decent enough AOR record and for some reason I found it really endearing. Personally I would prefer a little more guitar than piano on most of the songs, but it’s clear that the guys have talent and know how to write a good chorus, so for that reason I think this one could definitely be a grower.

6/10
Suzie