Supernova

Ray LaMontagne has been on my listening radar for a while, due to numerous cuts heard on various NPR programs. However, I do not particularly enjoy listening to singer-songwriter / folk music for a whole album, even when I do appreciate the lyrical twists and good melodies.I bought this album because other reviewers said Ray had taken a different path, partly with the production stewardship of Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, who has taken his own musical journey since decamping from the Rubber City ( Akron OH ) to the music city ( Nashville TN ). Side note: an artist that created another of my favorite album in the past several years, Amos Lee, Rivers of Sorrow - Mountains of Song, also took a leap from comfort zone to Nashville and the results are absolutely stunning. Hence, I wanted to see / hear what Dan, Ray, and Nashville might come up with.The overall tone to this standout album, is the comfort and intricacy of some great unclassified music from the late 1960's and early 1970's by the likes of The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and unique singer-song writers of that era like Tom Rush or Tim Hardin. The bottom line, however, is that Ray has embraced a lot of fine influences and made them his own. The more I listen to this album, the better I like it. I even enjoy the indecipherable lyrics to many of the songs, for his voice is being used as another instrument.I cannot think of any other musician who has incorporated mellotron, dobro, and petal steel guitar into the same songs, and added a touch of Hammond B-3 just to give the whole creation some added depth. None of the songs are hard driving rockers, none are really quiet introspective pensive pieces either. In other words, the songs and the album defy normal labels and descriptions, which is exactly why I find it so appealing. Hints of influences are detectable, but Ray has written some great tunes, and Dan has given him license to break the mould of expectations and create some true musical beauty here.Aficionados of music with eclectic tastes should do themselves a favor - buy this and listen to it for at least three full through listens. It definitely will grow on you, and in a good way. Supernova will not disappoint.

RL's 'goin electric 1966' moment. For me i am not attached to any style so this is AGAIN, pure GENIUS ! Ray is the "Jimi Hendrix of Folk-Rock", an artist that transcends his era. Rays stuff rains down straight out of the Collective Mind-Jimi did that too, Dylan did it but "i cayn't stand the way he sangs, loove to hear him talk".------Off topic some...-Ray should go down in history at the level of Dylan, Beatles, etc........ He doesnt get the fanfare he deserves in mainstream (may be a good thing) Radio/Media-"Industry", too bad, same as with Soundtrack of Our Lives, Kula Shaker, etc. He as good as the greats and maybe better.-Ray uses VINTAGE Studio Recording gear that helps to give that Vinyl-Tape-Vacuum Tube , Ole Timey sound on modern HiFi gear. This really helps and sounds GREAT.-If youve only heard it through earbuds/mp3, gotta hear the factory 16bit (CD) through a GOOD DAC, like an Onkyo or Marantz, and Good Speakers-Headphones (over 200$ ones), or of course Vinyl.-You DONT need a Tube preamp because He's already DONE that for you, the TUBE sound is ON the Recording, its what gives it its Magic Sound (along with great producing, etc).

Walt Whitman (paraphrase) said: All music is what awakens from you when you are reminded by the instruments. Ray's music has always painted pictures in my mind or elicited feelings I thought unshared with others. This album brings me back to my youth when summer lasted a year and the transistor was held tightly to my ear, metallic smell and all. I first heard Supernova at the tail end of a Letterman that taped with my Craig (not ready for that farewell...). Could tell it veered from the usual but I bought the album anyway (hint to my age). Just when I think I might grow tired of a song I like it all over again. Ojai, Drive-in, Airwaves, and even Supernova have great melodies and/or bridges that I'd rather lasted longer than they do. Don't mind any throwbacks to Roy Orbison/Beatles, psychedelia, it's music I want to hear. And Ray can say so much in one short phrase (what you doing rusty jeans? I buy my own smokes, maybe I'm old/ the drivein hasn't been mowed...) so cinematic and real. I'm playing ringolevio and humphreyall in the middle of the street when I hear Lavendar; hanging around the village green or Jones Beach, getting slushies at the 7-Eleven and growing up and looking back all during this album. Ojai reminds me of being in Humboldt county chasing the sunset to the beach listening to Eminence Front and hoping it all didn't end. So much awakens from me when I listen to this, written and performed by someone a decade younger than me and I think: "how can he know? how does he know?." LaMontayne is an artist and a musician, that's how. And his life has a lot more miles on it than most of his contemporaries. The miles show in every album including this one, and although I wish it had been easier for him and his family, his willingness to share lets some of us know were weren't alone. When I see art that I can totally relate to but not quite explain, or maybe not explain as well as the artist does, I know the universe is at work somehow.Artists can go through phases or styles (Neil Young, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello) and still produce fantastic musice within that genre or just music that works with no pidgeonholing at all. The Band could do rag, blues, country, rock, it didn't matter because the music was all great. Same here for Ray LaMontayne. The production tops it all off with nicely placed piano, vocals, and different sounds that support it all. I didn't want this album to end at 10 songs. Ah, but we do live in a selfish age...