RSO are a duo made up of ex-Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and Australian guitar-shredder and present member of Alice Cooper’s band, Orianthi Panagaris – a couple who have decided to celebrate their relationship in song with what can only be described as a vanity project. While Radio Free America, a title that implies something more than what’s delivered, may be their debut album, a good chunk of these songs has already seen the light of day on their Rise and Making History EPs and “I Got You Babe"/ "Forever All the Way” single: none of which has managed to set the world on fire. Their recycling here doesn’t make them any more appealing.
While this album has been trailed as showcasing a rainbow of tasty flavours, listeners hoping for a lurch into drum’n’bass or r’n’b are going to be somewhat inevitably disappointed. Power ballads and lightweight pop-rock are the main sounds to be heard on Radio Free America. That said, there is a particularly clunky rap that seems to have been phoned in by K-OS on “Good Times (Country)” and their speeded-up cover of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe”, but neither of these “innovations” is for the better. Set-closer “Hellbound Train”, on the other hand, does lay down some nice blues-rock licks, but it’s only particularly notable because everything else on this album is so unimaginative.
Sambora and Orianthi are undeniably capable guitarists whose work will appeal especially to those with a taste for pop-rock and mid-'80s hair metal, but neither are much cop when it comes to writing lyrics. Unfortunately, stringing together cliché after cliché and a production that lays on the bluster are poor camouflage, and they might want to think about engaging some more collaborators before they head for the studio again.
