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Ray LaMontagne - Gossip In The Grain
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| Allmusic |
| Ray LaMontagne's third album, Gossip in the Grain is as different from 2007's Till the Sun Turns Black as that album was from 2006's Trouble. The deep, heart-of-night atmospherics of the preceding disc have been jettisoned in favor of a brightly lit palette of textures and instruments that legendary producer and multi-instrumentalist Ethan Johns uses to illustrate LaMontagne's considerable ambitions as a writer. The set opens with the singer channeling his inner Memphis soul man on "You Are the Best Thing." Horns, strings, and a female backing chorus underscore LaMontagne's heartfelt uptempo rasp that touches on Sam Cooke as much as it does Tim Buckley with a hook worthy of Stax/Volt. In terms of sequencing, it certainly grabs the listener, but it is also arguably the best track here. "Let It Be Me" follows with a folksier, looser soul groove, where acoustic guitars, a Telecaster, piano, and strings underscore the hypnotic lilt in the verse. But LaMontagne can write a coda and a bridge and he gets his voice right into the meat of the lyric. We may have heard lyrics of this type a thousand times before, as they evoke loneliness and longing, but rarely have they been expressed this authentically and this dramatically. Echoes of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks are apparent in the gorgeous chamber jazz of "Sarah," and eerie, psychedelic British Isles folk — complete with an otherworldly pedal steel — haunts the grooves on "I Still Care for You." LaMontagne and Johns are able to create varying yet webbed atmospheres in these songs. Ray can find a style and write in it as if he'd created it. Johns adds so much depth and dimension in the mix that it feels as if both singer and songwriter will never be able to extricate themselves either from the emotional intentions expressed in his lyrics, or from the sound itself. The most notorious track on this set is the humorous yet tender "Meg White," for the White Stripes' drummer. With its imaginative use of an Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti western intro, Johns playing Wurlitzer and Mellotron, a Pink Floyd cadenza, and drumming of the sort White trademarked, it's no throwaway; add to this a seemingly sincere offer of friendship and empathy and there is an undeniable emotional appeal. "Hey Me, Hey Mama," has a back porch singalong feel, and features a banjo, trombone, and trumpet. The rambling free-form blues of "Henry Nearly Killed Me, (It's a Shame)" touches on Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, and the Rolling Stones; it's another high point here....full text |
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| Billboard |
| If the Ray LaMontagne we met on 2004's "Trouble" came off as a beaten man, beautifully broke down and busted, full of longing and regret, the one who returns to us on "Gossip in the Grain" is smiling and ready to have at least a little fun. Of course, never more so than when pining for Meg White during her namesake track, on which LaMontagne has us envisioning the pair biking along the sea shore—atop a crude White Stripes rhythm, no less. More importantly, the swinging, banjo-driven "Hey Me, Hey Mama" is a lighthearted joy, the rare tune where the fun being had in the studio is audible and immediately contagious. Elsewhere, LaMontagne warmly delivers more of the vivid relationship stories he's built a career on. While there's not a bad one in the bunch, once you've heard LaMontagne loosen up, you're left starving for more of it.—Wes Orshoski...full text |
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When Ray LaMontagne came out of nowhere in 2004 with the emotionally charged Trouble, most observers saw him as a withdrawn loner compelled by some mysterious internal force to reveal his scarred psyche – Montgomery Clift with an acoustic guitar. But even then, with his achingly intimate ballads, this iconoclastic artist was also crafting rustic, gritty tales revealing the tragic flaws of their hardscrabble antiheroes, later channeling his reverence for Otis Redding and other southern soul greats into a style that suited him as well as the confessional and the narrative modes. And while LaMontagne has never tried to obscure the intensely personal nature of his love songs with metaphor or flowery verbiage, the transition from Trouble’s life-affirming expressions of commitment, protection and ardor to the self-flagellating recriminations of Till The Sun Turns Black came not just from life experience but also from the courage and confidence he’d had gained from performing in a front of empathetic audiences who hung on to his every word and sigh. This artistic and personal growth brings a breathtaking immediacy to his third album. For Gossip In The Grain, once again produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams), LaMontagne brought bassist Jennifer Condos (Adams, Teddy Thompson) and guitarist/steel player Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Pretenders) from his touring band into the studio with him. As before, Johns supplied the drumming and the arrangements, bringing new colors to the palate in response to his longtime collaborator’s expanding musical and emotional range....full text |
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