“All that I need is a moment in time” begs Jeremy Rice in the opening line of his new single “Somebody Like You,” one of the star tracks on the album Jeremy Rice and the Legendary Fist of Takinawa, his voice aching with a sobering emotionality that is quite rare in mainstream pop anymore. There’s an honest, unwaveringly straightforward tone to Rice’s vocal in this song, and really all of the material that we hear on Jeremy Rice and the Legendary Fist of Takinawa, but he’s not mincing words with meandering pop melodies in “Somebody Like You.” For this artist, stories aren’t told through mere verses alone; every component in his work is utilized as a means of evoking a response from the audience, for better or worse (though, in this case at least, it tends to be for the better).
URL: https://www.jeremyrice.net/
Instrumentally speaking, Jeremy Rice and the Legendary Fist of Takinawa isn’t a very complicated record – tracks like “Underneath the Ground” and “Beleev” don’t exactly reinvent the wheel with regards to the structure of a basic pop hook, but their grooves are attractive and memorable just the same. Though some of the content here is blatantly geared towards radio play, such as the rather saccharine and annoyingly swingy “Arriianne,” the majority of these compositions have some genuine feeling to them (“Johnny Rogers,” “Goodbye” and “Dream Tonight” are all grade A pop/rock with a splash of old school lyrical temperance).
Although it’s a tad generic when we strip it down to nuts and bolts, there’s nothing inauthentic about Jeremy Rice’s first record, and it’s definitely one of the more interesting debuts out of the Canadian underground lately. There’s more in the tracklist of Jeremy Rice and the Legendary Fist of Takinawa hinting at a bright future for Rice than there is evidence of him reaching superstardom before 2020 rolls around, but this is perhaps what makes it such a fun listen – this is an early look at a truly talented songwriter, and with just a little more polish and some cultivation of his skills, he could eventually become just about unstoppable in his scene and anywhere he ventures to.
Jodi Marxbury