Ray Lamontagne - New CD, same old beard

Ray Lamontagne's new CD "Gossip In The Grain" was released today. Stop reading this and run to the nearest cd store, or just click over to your itunes and buy it NOW!

Upon first listen (honestly, I'm not even done with the entire CD yet) I think it will be one of my top five albums of the year. It'll probably surpass Ray's last effort, "Till The sun Turns Black", in terms of an overall album when it's all said and done. The songs on Gossip seem much more put together, and dare I say a little more experimental? With a song like "I Still Care For You" that mixes Ray's acoustic strumming with droning guitars and busy jazz drumming, it makes you feel like he is taking his music to another level. However, soft simple songs like "Winter Birds" show you that a good voice and an acoustic guitar is all anyone really ever needs.

The song "Meg White" is not his best work, in fact, I think it's a pretty awful choice for a single, but you have to give him some credit for having the guts to write an entire song about the White Stripes drummer.

We all know I'm still honing the craft of making a well written album review, and we all know that my usual ending to a post is "it's good, trust me, just listen to it". I'll try to not to end with that this time. If you like Ray Lamontagne, even just slightly, I think you'll enjoy this album.

Current song - A Fall Through - Ray Lamontagne

(It's Genius, just listen to it)