The solo singer songwriter is a much beleaguered soul around these parts. Armed only with a guitar and their inspiration those said artists seeking glowing affirmations of their labour aren’t like to find much currency from most of the In Fact, Ah crew. The list of offending acts is eternally expanding: Rice, O’Rourke, Blunt, Gray, Ritter, Mundy, Rosey, Mark Geary, Fionn Regan, James Morrision etc etc etc. They all seem to espouse the same acoustic portrayal of the ‘boy meets girl, girl breaks boy’s heart and boy picks up guitar and writes song about it’ story. Insipid lyrics and tedious acoustic arrangements aside I guess the bottom line is that their music doesn’t leave any imprint on my psyche or any recurring melody in my head. I began to think perhaps I’m the problem here. Maybe their music is really not that shite and it’s just another case of musical snobbery on my part, not willing to recognise true talent. But no, thankfully here comes Ray LaMontagne to my rescue with a truly magnificent piece of work to affirm that the taste buds are still intact.

The beauty of ‘Till the Sun Turns Black’ is that it is a timeless record. It sounds like it could have been released 30 years ago and it will still sound amazing in another ten or twenty years from now. And while there have been obvious comparisons with the likes of Nick Drake and Tim Buckley, other parts of the album are more reminiscent of upbeat soul songs by Otis Redding or Ray Charles. In the end however Ray LaMontagne’s work is distinctly his own. Perhaps it is the strength of his hoarse low-key vocals coupled with simplistic constructed musical arrangements that wins the listener over. From the opening track ‘Be Here Now’, the sombre reflective tone of the album is set. Every song tells a different story in accessible honest lyrics. An introvert of sorts, Lamontagne is likely to turn up for a gig and not communicate with the audience in any shape or form. He’s actually been known to play in the dark on stage, simply doing his thing and then promptly departing having delighted his relatively small but loyal band of adoring fans. To properly review this album I would need an age and more to do it justice. Suffice to say that if you are sick to the teeth of the other singer songwriter tripe out there, I suggest you give this record a spin. You are likely to find something that is absent from his contemporaries, be it musical talent, integrity or just plain genius. Check it out.

Published by Dae.