The Upside by Wirral musician Dean Johnson and Warrington-born songwriter and producer Chris Braide, has been described as ’A fabulous album’ by Liverpool writer and broadcaster Spencer Leigh, while Record Collector’s David Quantick, who often contributes to TV music documentaries, has heralded it as ’a brilliant collection of pop songs’.
Even ahead of its anticipated April release, Prog Magazine nominated its first single Wild Honey Hair as ’track of the week’.
The duo first met 25 years ago after being introduced by Chris Difford of Squeeze, resulting in both being invited to a song-writing retreat in Devon, where the pair’s northern roots are bonded them ‘immediately’ said Dean.
Cover of Chris Braide & Dean Johnson’s ‘The Upside’ album (Image: Dean Johnson)
Soon they had three albums’ worth of material, but soon after Chris decamped to the USA, becoming a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, working with global icons like Beyoncé and Sia, who wrote the single Unstoppable.
Dean went on to tour the world with the likes of Bryan Ferry, The Doobie Bros, The Beach Boys, Wet Wet Wet and Bill Wyman.
This year, Braide and Johnson have reconvened.
Chris says: “There are collaborations that happen for momentum, and there are those that happen because you’ve finally come full circle. Working with Dean again belongs to the latter.”
Meanwhile The Upside’s stature continues to grow.
Among those praising the album is Dave Crompton from Rock & Metal Magazine, who writes “Each song is a melodic gem. Yes, this album is that good”, concluding that the album is “exquisite”.
Reflecting on its retrospective success, Chris Braide said: “We wrote our first songs together in 1998 — two people chasing sound and emotion with nothing to prove, just instinct.
“Twenty-plus years later, we opened those notebooks again and the songs still breathed. They’d been waiting for us to grow into them.”
The vinyl edition of The Upside will be released Record Store Day, Saturday April 16