-
neumu
Thursday, March 28, 2024 
-
-
--archival-captured-cinematronic-continuity error-daily report-datastream-depth of field--
-
--drama-44.1 khz-gramophone-inquisitive-needle drops-picture book-twinklepop--
-
Neumu = Art + Music + Words
Search Neumu:  

illustration
44.1kHz = music reviews

edited by michael goldbergcontact




Editor's note: We have activated the Neumu 44.1 kHz Archive. Use the link at the bottom of this list to access hundreds of Neumu reviews.

+ Donato Wharton - Body Isolations
+ Svalastog - Woodwork
+ Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet
+ Rosy Parlane - Jessamine
+ Jarvis Cocker - The Jarvis Cocker Record
+ Múm - Peel Session
+ Deloris - Ten Lives
+ Minimum Chips - Lady Grey
+ Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The U.K.
+ The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls Together
+ The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
+ The Places - Songs For Creeps
+ Camille - Le Fil
+ Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
+ Christina Carter - Electrice
+ The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
+ Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
+ Various Artists - Musics In The Margin
+ Rafael Toral - Space
+ Bob Dylan - Modern Times
+ Excepter - Alternation
+ Chris Thile - How To Grow A Woman From The Ground
+ Brad Mehldau - Live in Japan
+ M Ward - Post-War
+ Various Artists - Touch 25
+ The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
+ The White Birch - Come Up For Air
+ Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
+ Coachwhips - Double Death
+ Various Artists - Tibetan And Bhutanese Instrumental And Folk Music, Volume 2
+ Giuseppe Ielasi - Giuseppe Ielasi
+ Cex - Actual Fucking
+ Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
+ Leafcutter John - The Forest And The Sea
+ Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
+ Barbara Morgenstern - The Grass Is Always Greener
+ Robin Guthrie - Continental
+ Peaches - Impeach My Bush
+ Oakley Hall - Second Guessing
+ Klee - Honeysuckle
+ The Court & Spark - Hearts
+ TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
+ Awesome Color - Awesome Color
+ Jenny Wilson - Love And Youth
+ Asobi Seksu - Citrus
+ Marsen Jules - Les Fleurs
+ The Moore Brothers - Murdered By The Moore Brothers
+ Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
+ The 1900s - Plume Delivery EP
+ Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror
+ Function - The Secret Miracle Fountain
+ Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
+ Loscil - Plume
+ Boris - Pink
+ Deadboy And The Elephantmen - We Are Night Sky
+ Glissandro 70 - Glissandro 70
+ Calexico - Garden Ruin (Review #2)
+ Calexico - Garden Ruin (Review #1)
+ The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
+ The Glass Family - Sleep Inside This Wheel
+ Various Artists - Songs For Sixty Five Roses
+ The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
+ Motorpsycho - Black Hole/Blank Canvas
+ The Red Krayola - Introduction
+ Metal Hearts - Socialize
+ American Princes - Less And Less
+ Sondre Lerche And The Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions
+ Supersilent - 7
+ Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
+ Dudley Perkins - Expressions
+ Growing - Color Wheel
+ Red Carpet - The Noise Of Red Carpet
+ The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
+ Espers - II
+ Wilderness - Vessel States

44.1 kHz Archive



peruse archival
snippet
    
artist
Ray Lamontagne
recording
Trouble
RCA
snippet
rating


Measured against the great musical-awakening narratives of history — Robert Johnson meeting the devil at the crossroads, Bob Dylan playing for a hospitalized Woody Guthrie — Ray Lamontagne's story might seem a bit mundane. Waking at 4 in the morning to go to work at a Maine shoe factory, he heard Stephen Stills' "Tree Top Flier" coming from his clock radio. After listening in rapt silence, Lamontagne immediately knew where his life was headed. Sure, as a life-defining moment it lacks some of the drama found in similar tales, but it was enough to get the ball rolling — and the result is Lamontagne's soulful debut Trouble.

From the opening of the title track, Lamontagne proves he means business. Over a strummed guitar and a solid bass line, he laments, "Trouble… / Trouble, trouble, trouble/ Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born." The sentiment is straight out of a classic blues song, and Lamontagne's delivery is confident and heartfelt, as if he's been doing this his whole life. His voice is a hushed rasp, with echoes of Al Green and Richard Manuel, and it can knock you down with its sheer emotional weight. Later in the song, he nearly wails, "I've been saved by a woman/ She won't let me go/ She won't let me go now…." And what should be a joyous situation, in Lamontagne's hands, sounds like a mixed blessing. For all the tenderness of the sentiment, there is the slightest note of sadness, too, of resignation, as if the only reason she is able to keep a hold of him is because he's just too tired, too weary to do anything about it.

One of the themes Lamontagne explores throughout the album is the possibility of finding solace, a place of rest and shelter from the demons that pursue his characters, and quite possibly himself. Most often, this comfort is found in a woman, as in the song "Shelter," where Lamontagne sings, "Listen when/ All of this around us'll fall over/ I'll tell you what we're going to do/ You will shelter me my love/ and I will shelter you." In "Hold You in My Arms," the gentle touch of a lover is all that is needed to dispel the questions that plague the singer: "When you kissed my lips with my mouth so full of questions/ It's my worried mind that you quiet/ Place your hands on my face/ Close my eyes and say/ Love is a poor man's food/ Don't prophesize/ I could hold you in my arms."

And yet, Lamontagne is acutely aware that the promise of rest is never a sure thing. In "Narrow Escape," he presents us with a scene of tragedy shattering the delicate wall of safety. "Burn" reveals how the greatest obstacle to peace is often our own pride and stubbornness: "To see you now with him/ Is just making me mad/ Oh so kiss him again/ Just to prove to me that you can/ and I will stand here/ And burn in my skin." One of the strongest songs on the album, "Jolene," finds the singer acknowledging his failure to hold on to the solace offered: "Held you in my arms one time/ Lost you just the same/ Jolene/ I ain't about to go straight." For every song on the album that celebrates the healing connection between two people, there is another song that questions the very possibility of such connections.

Musically, Trouble is simple and stripped down, with Lamontagne playing acoustic guitar and harmonica on all tracks. Ethan Johns, who produced the album, fleshes out the songs with touches of bass, piano, electric guitar, and harmonium. In some songs Johns also adds a few touches of strings, which come sliding in from the corner and gently lift the melodies. Behind the simple arrangements, nourished in the fertile ground of his songwriting, lie Lamontagne's roots. The descending strings halfway into "Trouble" grow straight out of Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" from Astral Weeks. The lines "A man needs something he can hold on to/ A nine-pound hammer or a woman like you/ Either one of them things will do," from "Jolene," reach all the way back to the Monroe Brothers and beyond. Lamontagne knows where his songs come from, and he cultivates and transforms those influences into something uniquely his own.


by Lee Templeton




-
-snippetcontactsnippetcontributorssnippetvisionsnippethelpsnippetcopyrightsnippetlegalsnippetterms of usesnippetThis site is Copyright © 2003 Insider One LLC
-