At any given time, there are multiple singer-songwriters being played on the radio. The John Mayers and Gavin DeGraws of the world consistently find themselves sitting pretty on the Billboard charts, and if they ever falter, the hundreds of sound-alikes waiting in the wings will be happy to take their places.

With that said, is it really a good career move to put out singer-songwriter-esque material now, with so many others doing it so well? Probably not, especially if you’re better at something else — I’m looking right at Mark Rose on this one.

Rose, former singer and guitarist for the now-defunct pop-punk band Spitalfield, was in his niche as the voice of the band. Unfortunately, the band continuously got the shaft from their ex-label Victory Records and never got the label help they deserved, ultimately leading to their dissolution in 2007.

Rose is now working as a solo artist and recently released his first EP titled “The Greatest Lakes.” It is a blues inspired, singer-songwriter type of EP that unfortunately falls short of any of the work he had done with Spitalfield.

“The Greatest Lakes” opens with “You Come Along,” and quickly deflates any hopes of a second coming of Spitalfield. It has a heavy blues sound and while Rose’s voice sounds as good as it ever has, it just doesn’t seem to fit well with the music. “How Strong We Are,” follows and has few noticeable differences from “You Come Along,” aside from the lyrics.

The songs — while they are absolutely a different genre than his past work with Spitalfield — don’t display his versatility as a singer and musician the way he intended. It seems as though he is either doing all pop-punk or all blues-rock without much variety to mix things up.
“Go On” is a sweet love song but feels very bland and doesn’t offer much of an experience to the listener. As with most of the songs, “Go On” doesn’t have any qualities that make it worth repeating.

“I Need You” is more of a step in the right direction for Rose. The tune is a little more upbeat and the bass line keeps the song moving right along while Rose’s vocals shine.

The title track, “The Greatest Lakes,” is a return to the blues-influenced rock that the rest of the album features and doesn’t stray far from the original sound of the album.

Rose really drops the ball late in the EP with “I Can See You (With My Eyes Closed).” The song is weak from the start, but hits all-time lows in the chorus as Rose sings “I can see you / with my eyes closed” and then puts an echo effect on the “closed.” The echo is completely unnecessary and adds a very cheesy quality to the song. The song conjures up memories of the worst songs of the ’80s and will give listeners the impression that Rose is a sleazy guy with a bad moustache.

Luckily, Rose somewhat erases the memory of that song with the final track “Crossing the Line,” an acoustic track where his superior vocal talent is displayed. Rose has always sounded best acoustic, and this instance is no different as this is without a doubt the best track of “The Greatest Lakes.”

Rose has star-quality talent — his voice and guitar playing skills are far better than many of the other singer-songwriters who are currently popular. However, to overtake them, he needed to come out blazing and “The Greatest Lakes” did not do that. The songs are extremely formulaic and it is hard to tell one song from the next.

The redeeming factor of the album is Rose’s voice is among the best in music today, but that just won’t be enough to keep him relevant.

Here’s hoping Rose has bigger plans for the future because these “Lakes” were only decent at best.

Reach the reporter at jdfourni@asu.edu.