Ray LaMontagne - Till The Sun Turns Black

Till The Sun Turns Black is, most assuredly, a fine collection of tracks

Ray LaMontagne showcases just exactly what he’s about on Till The Sun Turns Black; his second full-length release. His whispery vocals shine quite well through the creaky woodwork of this albums recording; you can feel the air in the room, the space between, and the passion living strongly in his voice. It’s easy to see that LaMontagne doesn’t just sing these songs; he lives them. The gorgeous, six minute opener “Be Here Now” sets the tone quickly, letting the world know that, no; he isn’t another polished pop-songster, or a man who doesn’t exactly know how to get the sound he’s going for; but instead this is the sound of a talent who knows precisely what type of music he wants to make.

The tracks on Till The Sun Turns Black defy genre, and in doing that they also defy a specific time period. When listening to LaMontagne, it’s easy to forget that these tunes weren’t penned a few decades ago, back when Bob Dylan was in his heyday, taking the world by storm. Just the same, every tune houses the relevance of contemporaries such as Damien Rice, and Ryan Adams—two talented, fellow songwriters currently well in their prime.

To draw a line between two dots, LaMontagne sounds quite a bit like Ryan Adams on some of his more recent material; most specifically his latest: Twenty Nine. Like Adams, LaMontagne displays a more stable incarnation of that sporadic brilliance that accents almost all of Adams work. LaMontagne is, to put it bluntly, the type of artist that Ryan Adams would be if he could just slow down. Till The Sun Turns Black is, most assuredly, a fine collection of tracks. A focus is shown in the craft of songwriting that stands few and far between in the current landscape of music, and there is nary a misstep all the way through.

The album closer “Within You” brings this affair to an all too fitting close. LaMontagne is backed beautifully, and to finally stop with the Ryan Adams comparisons, it reminds me quite a bit of the stumbling ballroom balladry of “Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard.”

Goodnight, indeed; and I’ll surely be listening to Till The Sun Turns Black, until the sun comes up.

(RCA Records)