More Than Friends (album)
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- East Bay (Tarrytown, New York)
- Axis, Z, Mastersound, Soundtrack, Soundworks (New York City, New York)
| More Than Friends | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Studio | Battery (London, England)
| |||
| Genre | Pop, jazz | |||
| Label | Jive[1] | |||
| Producer | Barry Eastmond, Loris Holland, Timmy Allen, Teddy Riley | |||
| Jonathan Butler chronology | ||||
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More Than Friends is an album by the South African musician Jonathan Butler, released in 1988.[2][3] The title track was released as a single.[4]
The album peaked at No. 113 on the Billboard 200.[5] Butler supported the album by touring with Najee and Angela Bofill.[6]
Butler made it a point to avoid writing about South Africa and its politics.[7] He added elements of hip hop to his sound on More Than Friends; "True Love Never Fails", a duet with Vanessa Bell Armstrong, incorporated gospel influences.[8][9][10] Butler did not feel like he was abandoning jazz so much as becoming more aware of popular music styles.[11] "Sekona" is an instrumental.[12]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [13] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [14] |
The Washington Post opined that Butler "has all but abandoned whatever musical and vocal distinctiveness he once had in favor of his copycat commercial bent."[15] The Austin American-Statesman determined that the music "is upbeat and infectious with a backbeat that overpowers its occasional lapses into formulaic radio fare."[16] The Richmond Times-Dispatch called More Than Friends a "slickly produced album" that "moves toward the pop mainstream."[17]
AllMusic wrote that the album "continued the de-emphasis on his guitar playing, and was his biggest, most lavishly produced set."[13]