4/5
There's No Place Like Home.
It's been a 'Long Way Home' for American artist Ray LaMontagne since the pandemic of 2020, yet he's back, four years later, like the Olympics, for his first music since 'Monvision'. The 51-year-old, Nashua, New Hampshire singer's new album and its red bordered Barbara S. Beck's Japanese inspired woodblock artwork is classic like a shamisen. Let it play, as Ray at a half century, takes you back to his youth, where thirty years ago, in a Minneapolis club, he saw Townes Van Zandt perform, and was instantly inspired.
Like you will be, listening to this album from the 'Trouble' singer, whose songs made soundtracks like Ben Affleck's 'The Town' (the new 'Jolene') and 'She's The Man' (the heart aching 'Hold You In My Arms'). The music video for his latest single is artwork in itself. The kind Paolo Nutini would be proud of, like a pair of 'New Shoes'. And make sure, you, too, 'Step Into Your Power' with the positive affirmations of this new accomplished anthem. "All you need you already own/It was given to you on the day that you were born/Anything (Anything), that your heart can dream/You can make it reality." Step on up, those who don't need inspiration like that, right now. All to the call and response of LaMontagne and the Floating Action produced, "If you want it, you can have it/All you gotta do is just reach out and grab it/If you want it, you can have it/All you gotta do is just reach right out and grab it." I can already feel the goose flesh calling me to step it up.
The rest of this nine-track plays like a classic (CC: 'Supernova'), and 'I Wouldn't Change A Thing' too (like track two) on this ninth wonder like the hip-hop producer from an artist that has taken cues from everyone from Van Morrison, to Beck. 'Yearning' is exactly that, singing, "Lyin’ there in the soft moonlight/My fears have given up without a fight/My weapons fallen without a sound/Hit from behind, and it gave me a fright/Got my baby in my arms, you know I'm feeling alright", like the deepest desire in an earth on fire. Meanwhile, 'And They Called Her California', open the doors, like a flag of a bear, for a new iconic track for your L.A. woman playlist. Like a Ray of light, this artist also channels the gospel soul of Motown's own Sam Cooke on the delightful 'La De Dum, La De Da', completing a compelling big-three, right there in the springtime of this 'Long Way Home' album.
Homeward-bound, more love is found, like Verona, in 'My Lady Fair' for all the Juliet's looking down from the balcony at some Romeo with the same addiction that the late, great Robert Palmer had. Turn your lights on this evening to odes like, "Standing on a mountaintop, shout it out loud/Standing on a mountaintop, never gonna come down/Walk along in silence/I will sidеstep all of the violencе/Making my spaces just for you and me". Like a stone skimming off your window, all is fair in love and war...but this sonnet is so much more. And that's just 'The Way Things Are', like "Give my heart to you and no one other" (you got it, babe). 'So, Damned, Blue' like Joni, or another love addiction like Jane's. On the same weekend, that church going Hozier gives us his fourth release (whether it be LP, EP, or reissue) in just over a calendar, Ray LaMontagne completes our month, tuning into the self-titled closer. "Summertime, summertime/Summertime must yield to fall/And that's what hurts me most of all," he sings, obviously never spending September in Japan. Yet as Ray leaves us with, "Winter come to us, all my friend/Just as every childhood has an end" and memories of his mama. We just hope he, and we, make it home again. It's been way too long. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Step Into Your Power', 'And They Called Her California', 'La De Dum, La De Da'.
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