photo courtesy of Realm Music Group

Album Review of Ricki Erik: GenReality

Ricki Erik paints with a diverse musical palate, spanning dance, pop, R&B, Latin, blues, hip-hop, and more. Ricki’s new album GenReality is a very cool collection of songs that showcase his broad and varied vocal talents while providing an engaging album-listening experience.

image courtesy of Realm Music Group

Ricki kicks the album off with a couple of energetic dance tracks. First up, “Party Tonight,” on which he teams with Deja Vu Boston, is a good-time funky pop dance number, stylistically somewhat recalling Kool & the Gang but, of course, with Ricki’s identifiable voice cutting sharply and emphatically through the fun musical romp. “Love Hurts (Freestyle Remix)” follows, exploring a very different groove, with a full wall of sound backing a rhythmic beat in support of Ricki’s entreaty “baby, love hur-hur-hurts.”

Ricki pivots to Latin-style music on “Como Te Llamas,” a catchy song that’s all beat and rhythm and will be one of your quick favorites after just a listen or two. This song is well-structured, bouncing just enough to keep things peppy while allowing Ricki to showcase the sincere, earnest side of his smooth vocal delivery.

photo courtesy of Realm Music Group

Ricki slips comfortably into the blues on “Here I Come Baby.” His voice doesn’t get particularly deep on this track, but he shows off a growl with a hint of gravel that hadn’t even been hinted at on previous tracks. I mean, it’s clearly still Ricki Erik on this song, but man, this dude’s got range, and we’re only four songs in! As the disc continues, he wields even more of the weapons in his vocal arsenal, and they make for an enjoyable album stacked with variety.

Next up is “Bad Girl,” featuring Zambo Buchanan. This song is Ricki’s hip-hop reimagining of Hall & Oates’ “Maneater.” It’s an exceptionally fun listen.

“Can’t Get Enough” is promoted as a wedding song, and it’s a really heartfelt love song, with Ricki’s voice cracking and quavering to maximize emotional impact.

“Wait a Minute” is a tempo-changing, head-bobbing dance-pop number. The beat is disjointed enough it might not be particularly easy to dance to, but it’s a very cool listen.

“Friend” recalls Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” with its semi-haunting electronic musical sound, yet Ricki’s smooth voice somehow still showcases itself and portrays emotional pain despite the electronification of the vocals.

photo courtesy of Realm Music Group

“Flower”… well, lyrically and topically, you have to wonder if Friends character Monica Geller, as her younger self in the show’s flashback scenes, had a hand in the songwriting. Musically, there’s some neat keyboard melody that helps navigate the otherwise electronic, rhythmic beat serving as a music bed. Ricki’s vocals dash in and out, adding the finishing flourishes to this funky pop number.

“Beautiful Liar” is an engaging song, residing in an expressive, rhythmically somewhat disjointed lane of R&B. The song doesn’t flow smoothly at all; rather, the phrase “you’re such a beautiful liar” is sung disruptively, continually drawing attention from the rhythm, then suggesting a return to smoothness with “you are, you are, you are.” Don’t believe the suggestion. Instead, Ricki’s vocals don’t release the listener or the song; it’s a very cool approach.

Now, “Whisper,” on the other hand, is smooth. Well, mostly. It’s the album’s strongest ballad, deftly utilizing Sherl Burke‘s supporting background vocals throughout, with strings helping Ricki’s voice soar in spots before returning to the song’s rhythmically disruptive chorus, creating a bit of tension each time before releasing into Ricki’s smooth delivery of “that’s how they whisper.” It’s the little nuances in “Whisper” that make this a memorable song, so much so that I’ve caught myself singing days after my last listen.

photo courtesy of Realm Music Group

“Feelings,” on which Ricki is again joined by Zambo Buchanan, closes the collection with warmth and humanity; it has an engaging rhythm and an ending fade-out that wrap this album up neatly.

Beginning to end, GenReality is a cool journey, a record I enjoyed listening to beginning-to-end each time I reached it in my to-be-reviewed queue for the last several months. If you give it a listen, you’ll discover that, even when it doesn’t get you completely up out of your seat, Ricki’s songs will have your toe tapping, your head bobbing, or your body swaying side to side. And, though I’d advise a full listen of this disc, if you want to sample individual songs, Ricki’s Soundcloud page includes each of these songs, with most noting a genre in the song title (“R&B,” “Hip Hop,” “Pop,” “Blues,” etc. ), so you can more easily choose where to start your journey of discovery based on your musical taste.

This release was Ricki Erik’s first album in 15 years; let’s hope the next one comes around much sooner.

More Recently

Ricki Erik was nominated for a New England Music Award in the Soul/R&B Act of the Year category. Voting has concluded, and NEMA winners will announced during a ceremony at the Six String Bar & Grille in Foxborough, MA on November 12th.