June's Singer Songwriter Record of the Month - Ray LaMontagne - Part Of The Light (Ltd. Ed. clear-colored vinyl, 150g)
When Ray Lamontagne burst onto the scene with 2004's Trouble, the comparisons were obvious and deep. Otis Redding, The Band, and Van Morrison. It wasn't a negative comparison that can sometimes be given when it appears to just copy another style or artist. It was more that LaMontagne had successfully blended his influences with his voice and style and created something new that dripped of old. It wasn't just the vocal style or the songwriting either; the album was recorded on analog tape. It was warm and instantly familiar. It had all the trapping of nostalgia, but it wasn't. It was new and because of that, it was absolutely refreshing.
Fast forward 14 years later and LaMontagne finds himself releasing his seventh album, Part of the Light. It's his most experimental album yet. The songwriting is still impressive, but the sound is steeped in 1970's psychedelic sounds that are reminiscent of Pink Floyd. This album, like his first and every album since, is just easy to listen to. It's simple and still feels familiar. If you have been a longtime fan of Ray LaMontagne, this one is different enough to catch you off guard at first, but if you let it play, you will sink into it just like you've done with his past albums.
The record is packaged beautifully. It's pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a clear sleeve. The liner art and the center of the record form the album art.
Fast forward 14 years later and LaMontagne finds himself releasing his seventh album, Part of the Light. It's his most experimental album yet. The songwriting is still impressive, but the sound is steeped in 1970's psychedelic sounds that are reminiscent of Pink Floyd. This album, like his first and every album since, is just easy to listen to. It's simple and still feels familiar. If you have been a longtime fan of Ray LaMontagne, this one is different enough to catch you off guard at first, but if you let it play, you will sink into it just like you've done with his past albums.
The record is packaged beautifully. It's pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a clear sleeve. The liner art and the center of the record form the album art.
Join the Singer Songwriter genre and receive this as your June pick from B.T.R.C.
B.T.R.C. - David W. Williams
Track listing
1. To the Sea
2. Paper Man
3. Part of the Light
4. It's Always Been You
5. Let's Make It Last
6. As Black As Blood Is Blue
7. Such a Simple Thing
8. No Answer Arrives
9. Goodbye Blue Sky
2. Paper Man
3. Part of the Light
4. It's Always Been You
5. Let's Make It Last
6. As Black As Blood Is Blue
7. Such a Simple Thing
8. No Answer Arrives
9. Goodbye Blue Sky
What critics are saying about Part Of The Light...
Ray LaMontagne has released his seventh studio album. The only disappointing aspect of this album is that it is only 9 songs long. The album, Part of the Light, is released by RCA Records and came out just in time for the summer season. It will be able to set the mood for the warmer beach season perfectly. By Josh Whitworth - Spill Magazine -
Semi-reclusive and press-reticent, LaMontagne has spent fifteen years in a dream-like folk-rock state, his records often sounding like someone has set up a microphone in the basement of the Big Pink house in Woodstock and captured the ghostly echoes of The Band haunting the place. He knows the power of the spectral and the flesh, the emotional and the intangible, and his seventh album ‘Part Of The Light’ finds him straddling the divide more confidently than ever.
Mark Beaumont - NME -'Part Of The Light' Review