Bare, sincere, Ray LaMontagne's latest album – “Monovision” 2020 – had left a bitter taste in the mouth, both for the most loyal fans and for those who had appreciated the psychedelic turn of “Ouroboros”; a stylistic choice, that of the American musician, which makes sense with the release of the new project “Long Way Home”, an album that marks the transition from Rca to Liula/Thirty Tigers.
The album seals the return to the folk-rock suggestions of the origins, the tone is comfortable, confidential, the artist focuses more on the compositions, with more than satisfactory results.
Ray LaMontagne has stated that “Long Way Home” was inspired by the memory of a Townes Van Zandt concert and in particular by the song “To Live Is To Fly”, the retro effect is consequently almost obvious, natural. The sound of the harmonica in “And They Called Her California” candidly evokes Neil Young's “Harvest”, the cultured and harmonically rich fingerpicking “The Way Things Are” has a 70's West Coast feel to it, while you dance to country, complete with steel guitarlike “I Wouldn't Change A Thing” or the Bob Dylan-esque folk-blues of “Yearning”, seem to come from any American singer-songwriter album of the 70s.
After having dialogued with the art of arrangements and after the psychedelic hangover, which resurfaces for a moment in the curious instrumental piece “La De Dum, La De Da!”, Ray LaMontagne rediscovers in “My Lady Fair” the charm of the three-chord composition, just garnished with a few elegant instrumental inserts, starting from that mood country-soul in the style of Van Morrison which secured him a prestigious Grammy Award.
Perhaps not very ambitious, but authentic and touching, “Long Way Home” contains two of the most beautiful songs written by the musician since “Trouble”: the first is the delicious soul and gospel-tinged single “Step Into Your Power” (with the Secret Sisters on backing vocals), a song that shows how you can sound current and vibrant without denying your own style (with the right sounds it could become a hip-hop style hit); the other pearl is the title trackan unexpected foray into the visionary folk of David Crosby and Tim Buckley, which LaMontagne sings and whispers over a few melancholic chords, while images and memories, similar to those of an old black and white film, slowly fade away, leaving room only for a bitter nostalgia.
25/08/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM