Johnathan Rice - 'Trouble Is Real' (One Little Indian) Released 04/07/05

Edinburgh University missed the boat on Johnathan Rice by seconds. The Scottish/American was just filling in the application form - after his parents decided busking and recording an EP when at school wasn’t enough - when low and behold an LA exec got on the phone...It all sounds very Willy Mason, minus the interference of Zane Lowe.

And admittedly with his debut 'Trouble Is Real', Rice is following down the Mason et al path. The music scene at the moment is seemingly teeming with youngsters who ache for the days of Dylan and growl their way through heartfelt lyrics. And in this sense Rice, is no different, but at least he can back it up with some good songs. If 'Mid November' is slow and wistful then 'Salvation Day' does well to bring up the tempo on the album before the obligatory la la‘s kick in on ‘So Sweet’.

With lyrics that tackle everything from James Dean, lost love, to war and salvation, Rice is certainly not worried about mixing his lyrical bag. Though I hate the word 'heartfelt' the boy has certainly been reaching deep for some of his topics. You’ve got to wonder what girl pissed him off for the resulting ‘I Wouldn’t Miss It For The World’. Woah there little’un, you’re only 21. Ration that break up bile. If you need further indication for the type of music Rice is doing, Snow Patrol are fans as is R.E.M’s Peter Buck...so far so good.

Fortunately for sales; but maybe unfortunately for credibility, Rice has found his music used as a regular soundtrack to teen trials in The OC and One Tree Hill, to wake the dead in Six Feet Under and compliment a superhero in Smallville. This record is not going to change your world, but the songs are growers and you sense with time that Rice is a talent that will develop, not wax and wane. If not, he’ll have got the anguished OC teens early enough to get a following.