Customer Reviews

Further North

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

That's right, I can't. This album is such a fine piece of musicianship, after I bought the CD, I had to have a copy on vinyl as well. It sounds even better on my record player! Johnathan Rice--where to begin? If not with this one, try his debut record from 2005, TROUBLE IS REAL. It's nocturnal, folky, ambitious in scope, and startlingly world-weary in its depth of lyricism and singing for a man in his early twenties. Some astonishing, spare acoustic guitar (especially the gorgeous "Behind the Frontlines" and "Acrobat" among others) mingled with perhaps some slightly overproduced rocking out, but these are minor quibbles to an astonishing debut album.
On FURTHER NORTH, what we get is an impressive album that rocks out, also with lyrical sensitivity, but there's more light to the darker content of the stories he sings, where wit and cynicism intertwine and compel the listener. "We're All Stuck," "Middle of the Road," "Further North," "It Couldn't Be Me," a particular standout, but the thing is they are ALL standout. It's useless for me to pick apart every song, but buy this album and you will listen and ponder and revisit the lyrics--It Will Grow on You--if you're someone who likes good ole rock-folk-blues that doesn't call for pro-tools or the high-tech. In fact, the great "What Am I Gonna Do?" in its jingly way echoes The Beatles at times, and the final song of the album is superb. Rice somewhat echoes the gothic, noirish voices of Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen!
Also, I might add, Johnathan Rice superbly performed the bulk of this album live (plus a few others) as part of a support tour he's on I caught November 3rd, at the Crocodile in Seattle, WA. I caught this show just a week after I bought the album at Easy Street Records in Seattle, and spotted him a couple times as I was perusing the concert posters outside the Crocodile--what a Dive! My only regret is that the standing room audience wouldn't shut up during the quieter moments, such as his Final Song! Honestly, I thing some of these people are just space fillers or something--dorks. I was enthralled!
Come back to Seattle, Johnathan, and keep doing your thing!

Jonathan Rice does a superb job in 'Further North.' This CD is a breathe of fresh air! Jonathan is truly talented and his lyrics and real, candid and honest. He reminds me of a young Bob Dylan. Expect more greatness from Mr. Rice- this is not a CD to pass up!!! Well done Jonathan!!!

Further North is a musical gem. I can't stop listening to it. The music itself sounds a little southern rock-ish and the lyrics sound very Californian and mellow--his voice is very folky and soothing.
As far as comparisons of course everyone will think of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I should also mention Ryan Adams if he was more mellow and sad. It also reminds me of new Bright Eyes, like 2004 and later.
My favorite song is probably the first track but the whole LP really fits together and ends well I think.

Awesome CD. Caught them playing on Kimmel while surfing the channels. I could not find this CD anywhere but on Amazon.

I first found out about Jonathan Rice with the release of his debut record. I really loved the Bob Dylan/Nick Drake influenced sound of Trouble Is Real, especially "The Acrobat", "Behind The Frontlines", and "Put Me In Your Holy War". Despite quite a few unimpressive rockers and waaay too much orchestration, I found it an extremely promising debut.
When I found this, I bought it believing this would be even better, especially with the Nick Drake-ish album cover. Even though I gave it plenty of time to grow on me in all fairness, it unforunately still sounded trite, overly predictable and unimaginative. It's quite sad that Further North sounds a whole lot more like imitation (less-bluesy) John Mayer than Bob Dylan. Furthermore, I found the lack of mellow acoustic songs (that he does so well) quite saddening. Honestly, if I had ran into Further North without having heard his debut, I would have assumed him to be the typical modern bland, run-of-the-mill, comercial singer/songwriter. I certainly hope he doesn't keep going this kind of direction, but instead goes back to making the beautiful, warm, unique music that he's so loved for.
For those who haven't heard his debut, Trouble Is Real, you should really listen to that first before you dismiss Jonathan Rice as not capable of making unique, impressive, affecting music.

Good effort from a 24-year-old, but it doesn't do it for me yet.

On the positive he's got a good 'rock/blues' voice and the sound is very clean. Probably too clean. In fact, this is a good way to describe this album as the album lacks authenticity and the songs are unimaginative. In essence they are like a poor man's Tom petty or John Mellencamp.

It feels like the "studio" is weighting too much on the decisions as it doesn't have that 'indie' edge.

Keep trying and experimenting and you may find the magic formula.

This CD is very good, very professional and well produced. Johnathan often produces witty lyrics such as on the songs 'Further North', 'The middle of the road', and 'It couldn't be me'. A huge step from his debut CD 'Trouble is real' though perhaps no song on this new album comes up to the heights and the absolute brilliance of Rice's masterpiece, 'the Acrobat'. This album is sure to grow with repeated playings and has every right to make it up there with the best of music from the young troubadours that lust for the return of good solid music worthy to stomp and rage to!

It's pretty hard for me to imagine that "originality" was one of Johnathan Rice's goals when writing and recording Further North. When listening to his cookie cutter lyrics and completely unchallenging compositions and melodies, one can't help but feel that it all sounds a bit too familiar. Not that familiarity is always a terrible thing. When you're an established artist with a proven foundation of music to work with, familiarity can be exactly what fans want to hear. But when you're a generally unheard of and unproven artist, familiarity starts to sound a lot more like imitation, and that's where I stop taking you seriously as an artist.

Album opener, "We're All Stuck Out In The Desert" reveals what will grow to be a recurring problem for Further North. The song is both repetitive and uninteresting. Rarely do any of the songs on the album deviate from the standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure. In keeping with that simplicity, Rice seems absolutely opposed to deviating from his simple vocal melody. Therefore, when each verse or chorus comes by, you know exactly what to expect. There is no ad-libbing, nothing that would even hint at the slightest bit of creativity in the recording session. It's all very unsurprising and uninteresting.

Lyrics can also be a problem on Further North. A lot of the times it seems as if the lyrics for any given song were written in small parts and then pasted together at the end. They feel choppy and disconnected rather than fluid and natural. Of course a lot of this can be attributed to the one and only Jenny Lewis, whom Rice happens to be dating (so that's why this album exists!). She is credited with co-writing 6 of the 11 songs on Further North. Parts of her lyrical quirkiness can be found in various places on the album. Whether it's the fictional snapping of a business man's neck or the simple command to "Leave me the hell alone," her influence is pretty clear.

And while there's plenty to be underwhelmed about with Further North, there's also a few things that folks can enjoy. The first half of the album, in particular, is fairly catchy and features several songs that could easily be road trip sing-alongs for many listeners. The end of the affair is a pretty solid duet with Jenny and Johnathan trading off on lyrics, and her voice is perfectly suited to the southern alternative rock sound that soaks up the album. Likewise, "The Middle of the Road" is a somewhat well-written song even if I can't help thinking that there's no one else better suited to be singing about how it's a "Long, long way to the middle."

In the end though, Further North is a decidedly average album from an artist that shows promise and has talent but fails to give us a single legitimate reason to listen to him. He consistently switches between imitating Conor Oberst and Art Alexakis, and he winds up just sounding worse than either of them. Despite my disappointment with Further North, I'm glad to have listened to Johnathan Rice, and I hope that he opts for originality the next time he steps into a studio. For the time being though, I can't help but long for something more from Rice. And that is a never the impression that you'd like to make as an artist.

Recommended for fans of Everclear, the band...not the drink (of course drinking a lot of everclear may help you enjoy the album more).

Key Tracks:
1. "We're All Stuck Out In the Desert"
2. "End of the Affair"
3. "The Middle of the Road"
4. "THC"
5. "The Ballad of King Coyote"

5 out of 10 Stars