Stream: Johnathan Rice, ‘Below the Deck’

Kevin Bronson on February 22nd, 2019

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Besides cementing his legacy as a haiku hero (see “Farewell My Dudes: 69 Dystopian Haikus”), Johnathan Rice has been picking up the pieces after splitting with Jenny Lewis. Rice calls “The Long Game,” the new album he announced today, “an unflinching look at his own complicity in the slow-motion disintegration of a 12-year relationship …”

The album will be the Scottish-American singer-songwriter’s fourth solo full-length and first since 2013’s “Good Graces.” He’s produced and worked in collaboration with other artists in the interim, and for “The Long Game” he huddled with producer Tony Berg, who advised Rice to record it alone.

The rough-and-tumble new single “Below the Deck” is exemplary. Built on a muscular bass hook and peppered with squawking guitar, the song is about finding camaraderie among the proleteriat. Among them, things are more real … and besides, from below the deck, “When the ship goes down / we’ll be the first to know.”

The single follow’s last year’s release of “Meet the Mother” — a tune inspired by a conversation Rice had with Bill Murray — and the album’s title track and opener. The latter features a duet with Courtney Marie Andrews, with whom Rice collaborated on last December’s holiday single “We Won’t Be Lonely This Christmas.”

“The Long Game” is out May 10.

||| Stream: “Below the Deck”