Human Radio Solo
February 10, 2006
Ross Rice, songwriter, musician and former lead vocalist of the one-album wonders Human Radio has recently (end of 2005?) released his second solo album Dwight. It’s the best thing he’s done since the one and only official Human Radio release, a self-titled masterpiece that came out on Columbia Records in 1990. There are MP3’s available of the second, never released Human Radio album that while very good, doesn’t pack the punch, production or artistic brilliance of the first album.
Dwight is a fantastic album and Ross has really done a great job with the songwriting, vocals and production. There are some surprisingly progressive tracks like Blindman and the very Human Radio sounding opener Hard Times for the Revolution. There are some great lyrics here as well; this is one of my favorite passages from Blindman:
You feed me breakfast underwater. You melt the ice around my eyes. You treat the moon just like a daughter. You bring me down when I’m getting too......high. So why am I a study in blue? I’m like a blindman looking at heaven. That’s the way that I’m looking at you.....like a blindman looking at heaven.....
Musically it’s the progressive power-pop influenced style that Human Radio was known for, with a bit of The Beatles influence and Cheap Trick sound coming through here and there. This a great find and I would highly recommend it. Below are a couple of links where you can get more information, hear samples and order the CD. It’s on a small independent label called Memphis Records and I believe it’s only available online. Special thanks to the great musicologist Jim Worthen for the tip on this one. I would have completely missed it!
http://www.memphisrecordsonline.com/frameset.php?key=artistdetail&proid=13