Jonas Lindberg may well be an unfamiliar name to many but that should change very soon, because his talent as displayed on this latest album ”Miles From Nowhere” is undeniable. In fact, JONAS LINDBERG & THE OTHER SIDE have been in existence for ten years, but this is only their second full-length album.
What an album it is. It is accessible melodic symphonic Prog of the highest order, simple as that.
Do you like STYX both the old and the new? Perhaps EL&P and KANSAS most commercial side? And what about NEAL MORSE? Something of all these are comprised on this stupendous piece of work from young Swede Jonas Lindberg.
Jonas Lindberg comes from Stockholm, and so it’s perhaps unsurprising that hailing from a progressive rock stronghold like Sweden, he is steeped in that tradition. What is more surprising is that this young man is such a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer, and until recently, I’d never heard of him.
Now that I’m more familiar with his music, I can say with confidence that he will definitely become better known in progressive rock circles on the strength of this masterpiece.
The landscape here is looking a lot like Neal Morse Band territory, where top class musical ability meets emotional soaring vocals, muscular delivery, long epic tracks, but choc full of hooks.
They’re the kind of hooks you don’t realise are hooks until they are so embedded it’s too late to do anything about it, and why would you want to? The band have three excellent vocalists, a great solid drummer, two talented guitarists, and Lindberg on bass and ’70s sounding keys. It’s a gloriously big sound, over the top delivery, and should be massive.
The record starts with a crunchy riff-led song, with odd time signatures to keep up the interest, but such devices are never clever for the sake of it. No Dream Theater show-boating here, as simplicity is the name of the game. Lindberg does manage through excellent production techniques, however, to make the straightforward more interesting and ear-catching.
‘Secret Motive Man’ is the title, and it appears to be about an individual hiding their true intentions, perhaps referring to an internet troll? I really don’t know, but it’s an excellent start, the gritty guitars contrasting the smooth vocals and layered keyboards to give a strident opening number.
‘Little Man’ follows, and it’s altogether a more commercial track, which reminds me of Kansas with the excellent full-blooded vocals, folky verses and catchy singalong chorus. It’s a lovely slice of pop-Prog, and provides a good change of pace before a couple of epic pieces.
The first of these is ‘Summer Queen’, a lengthy suite based on the four seasons. Again, this might not sound especially original, but this is possibly the highlight of the album, showcasing the different vocal talents within The Other Side. It comes in on a swell of symphonic keys introducing the main theme, which then give way to a folky acoustic guitar and the vocal talents of Jenny Storm, bringing a delicate and whimsical Jon Anderson-like feel of youthful innocence to the opening section.
Electric guitar and synthesiser join the theme which becomes heavier, vocals shared with Jonas Sundqvist on the next part, with an NMB style construction. At one point, a short musical box and acoustic guitar break heralds an electric guitar motif. This track has everything, with mood and tempo changes aplenty, but with an overall flow which simply works.
Well after that epic, we have… another one! Well, it’s more straight ahead to be fair, it just happens to be quite long! I should mention at this point that Jonas Lindberg, apart from playing bass and some guitar, is also the band’s third lead singer, and he picks up most of the vocals on ‘Oceans of Time’ – and he is no slouch in that department either, putting in an intense performance, aided by Jenny Storm in the mid-section. He also plays all the keyboards, as sadly Michael Ottosson, their previous keyboardist, passed away in 2020. Again, he does a great job, but something will have to give when they return to live performance!
Calle Stålenbring provides some superb guitar breaks before we move to a segment which sounds very like Haken, with a Jennings inspired few moments of quirkiness which made me smile. Guest drummer Simon Wilhelmsson also stars on this song with some rock hard stick work.
The closing track is traditional epic prog into several parts which obviously all segue into each other seamlessly. We begin with an overture, so we are back to the Neal Morse comparison, as starting an epic with an overture introducing themes that will resurface later in the piece is a favourite device of his. It may well be a nod to him, I don’t know. Well, however many times this has been done before, and it’s quite a few as you all know, Jonas Lindberg clearly knows how to construct an overture, because it does the job very well, and the themes and melodies we are introduced to sound good, so let’s roll with it.
We move to a regretful ballad titled ‘Don’t Walk Away’, sung in a Styx manner with lovely yearning vocals before the heavier up tempo ‘I Don’t Know Where You Are’, which has a desperate searching urgency. Memories is a wistful interlude with acoustic guitar and flute (which might be played on keys!) and lovely percussion from Maria Olsson leading to the concluding title track, ‘Miles From Nowhere’.
This brings the track, and the album as a whole to a very satisfying conclusion. It builds again through hopeful and uplifting moments with stratospheric vocals to a guitar solo from guest Roine Stolt which is fittingly epic, inventive, and unmistakably Stolt. It’s the sort of climactic solo you just bask in and enjoy – just glorious stuff, and as epic an end as you could get.
So there we are, an album coming out of nowhere which turns out to be one of the best and most accomplished works from someone unknown to me as I’ve heard in ages. It’s melodic, proggy, rock&pop, melodic rock… it’s very good.
Thoroughly recommended, and will be in many end of year lists for sure
1. Secret Motive Man
2. Little Man
3. Summer Queen
4. Oceans Of Time
5. Astral Journey
6. Why I’m Here
7. Miles From Nowhere
Pt I – Overture
Pt II – Don’t Walk Away
Pt III – I Don’t Know Where You Are
Pt IV – Memories
Pt V – Miles From Nowhere
Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side – Miles From Nowhere 2022 CD
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