Caught in the Carousel

Ray LaMontagne

Gossip In The Grain
RCA

Ray LaMontagne

Ray LaMontagne lives in the late Norman Mailer's house in Maine (Yes, Norman Fucking Mailer!!!). Recently he decided to stop listening to music for a while and spend some time restoring the house. Quick question #1: Who doesn't listen to music while they're ripping out a toilet or tearing up a floor? Quick Question #2: Was there any cool Norman Mailer shit under those floors? (Yeah, like he'd tell us). Well, at least now we know what he did with the money from the first two records.

Okay, Gossip In The Grain: And let me begin by saying that Trouble drove a nail through my heart and Till The Sun Turns Black, a spike. Not so much for Gossip In The Grain, although I would be the last one to tell you not to buy this record; it's just...different.

Like, for instance, there's horns. I wasn't expecting that...and there's clapping and harmonica and steel guitar and flutes and girls singing. Also, this record was made in England and somehow that disappointed me. I wanted to hear that it was recorded in a barn in Woodstock with a patch-eyed dog looking on and blueberry pie for dessert, but no, Ray crossed the pond and I'm almost certain the dog stayed home.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of nice things on this record; The pretty arrangements that compliment Ray's lonely poetry that we've come to expect ("Let It Be Me," "Winter Birds," "I Still Care For You"); and even a sort of a rockin' homage to Meg White, but "Hey Me, Hey Mama," is the song that I immediately loaded onto the iPod: Cool, sparse banjo and a back porch slappy rhythm that evolves into New Orleans style Dixieland jazz is, for my money, the most likeable song of the bunch.

LaMontagne is as mysterious as ever; he's still not letting us in, but this album feels like he's signaling us from the roof with a flashlight instead of sitting alone in the dark.

—The Vinyl Princess