Ricochet returns to the radiowaves with “I Had to Be Me”, a song about stubborn resistance and man’s unwillingness to swallow his pride to salvage a relationship. Although the band has experienced changes in their lineup, lead singer Heath Wright is still at the helm, and he still sounds fairly capable.
The production is fairly lifeless, though, and the lyric never quite develops beyond the concept that the man needed to make changes and failed. The listener is unsure what drove the woman away in the first place, but the whole point of the song is to reach the chorus, and most importantly, the hook.
An innocuous attempt at renewed radio success.
Grade: C
Listen: I Had to Be Me
Okay, I admit it. I have their first CD somewhere in my collection.
Leeann, I have all 3 of their major CDs and considered buying the live collection. I really liked them. But this song sounds stuck in the 1990s.
Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought when I heard it. I love songs that hearken back to those days, but this one doesn’t exactly employ the best part of ’90s country music. I guess that’s preety much of what I think of them though. They aren’t really very refreshing to me, kind of stale and uninteresting.
I never liked Ricochet. Even their big hit, “Daddy’s Money”, which was supposedly about Pam Tillis (songwriter Bob DiPiero’s then-wife), bored me to tears.