Trouble - Ray LaMontagne > Reviews > Trouble is it's over too soon

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Soulful songs written with style and depth
Disadvantages:	maybe a bit too melancholy for some peoples tastes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

It's high season for male singer/songwriters and you just can't move for men pouring out their hearts about their loves & losses. To be honest it's a bit of a joke and finding the genuine articles amongst the commercial cash-ins is an exercise in muscial truffle hunting.
Let me save you some time here by guiding you past the mediocrity of James Blunt & Jack Johnson to bring your cultured snout to sniff over a real gem in Ray Lamontagne. Legend has it that he came out of his reclusive lifestyle to bring us his music, but this detail only serves as a notion for why his "sound" is so old-fashioned.
Ray sets his stall out very simply with an album here of love songs written from the heart. With it's strongly acoustic style it's true that the pace and volume of the album never boil up to fever pitch, but it does simmer nicely, keeping you warm and relaxed.
Songs like Trouble and Forever My Friend have an immediacy that will have you hooked in no time, but there's also an undercurrent of songs that although not exactly radio-friendly, have a depth and character all of their own. The album shares similarities with Bruce Springsteens "Nebraska" on some of it's more melancholy tracks which goes someway to describing it's rootsy feel.
It's a real whiskey-sipping album with it's own time-zone and one which I've had nothing but positive comments from to the friends I have played it to. The strange thing is that for an album with a running time of 44 minutes, it feels like it's over too soon.

Let's hope that Ray doesn't miss the reclusive life too much and trades the studio for his much-fabled log cabin.