Review: Ripley Johnson Wants Us All to Unwind with Delightful New Album Summerlong
- by Joe Sharratt
- in Reviews
As one half of Moon Duo and the frontman of west coast psychedelic rockers Wooden Shjips, Ripley Johnson must be a busy man. Add to that, he’s now released his second album as Rose City Band, his almost one-man show of hazy, dreamy country rock.
Rose City Band’s self-titled debut album was a wonderful offering, packed with soothing compositions that stripped back much of Johnson’s work with Wooden Shjips to a sparser, more minimalist sound. Summerlong, joyously, sticks firmly to that pattern too.
Mixed by John McEntire (Stereolab, Broken Social Scene, Tortoise) at Portland Soma Studios and mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering, Summerlong serves up eight more tracks of Johnson’s reflective, mellow musical soul for us to lie back and lose ourselves in. You get extra points if you can find a meadow to listen to it in – I can’t help but think that’s what Johnson would have wanted.
It is, as mentioned, almost a solo record – drums are provided throughout by John Jeffrey but everything else is Johnson’s own hand. Opening track Only Lonely is a lovely start, an instant skip-along country rock classic, while Empty Bottles introduces elements of the psychedelic sound Johnson is best known for and Real Long Gone injects some spectacular guitar licks into the show.
Floating Out is as spacey as its name suggests, but you don’t get long to lie among the flowers as Morning Light follows with its upbeat, high tempo flow. Reno Shuffle flirts with a blues feel and culminates with more wails of that psychedelic guitar, before Wee Hours > and Wildflowers bleed into each other and close things out superbly.
Detractors might say that Summerlong feels like too much of a throwback, but I’d argue that’s partly what makes it so special. It stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best country-rock of the 1970s, and in these troubled times, who doesn’t want a little bit more of this sunshine sound in their lives?
Summerlong track list:
1. Only Lonely
2. Empty Bottles
3. Real Long Gone
4. Floating Out
5. Morning Light
6. Reno Shuffle
7. Wee Hours >
8. Wildflowers
psychedelic rock country rock
