Wicked Playlist - Music Blog

Many CD reviews are pretty easy to write. You talk about the direction of the album, what sets it apart from others, touch on a few songs and then wrap it up. A CD like Ray LaMontagne’s Till The Sun Turns Black isn’t quite that easy. It requires a lot of staring at the keyboard thinking how do I do justice to something written so well?

Lyrically, Till The Sun Turns Black doesn’t have many peers. You don’t need a thesaurus to understand it, but I promise a glass of wine and a cool breeze will certainly open any closed doors. If LaMontagne had posted the lyrics for Till The Sun Turns Black on his official website, I had intended to simply shut up and post them here. Since he didn’t, I am gonna give you a few of my favorites.

This one is from “Empty” and I love it because it reminds me of my wife.

Lay your blouse across the chair
Let fall the flowers from your hair
And kiss me with that country mouth so plain

Also from “Empty” and yes, I should have just posted the entire song.

Well I looked my demons in the eyes
layed bare my chest and said
do your best to destroy me

You see I’ve been to hell and back
so many times I must admit
you kinda bore me
theres a lot of things that can kill a man
theres a lot of ways to die
yes and some already did and walk beside me

Absolutely wonderful album. I can’t get through a song without basically wanting to post the entire lyrics for it. The lyrics, even though I have been really focused on, aren’t the only part of these songs. Ray’s soothing, almost whisper like delivery on “Can I Stay” will literally be proven to relax heroin addicts one day. Of this, I have no doubt.

The production and Ray’s acoustic guitar playing are also amazing. The soft strumming of the guitar compliments LaMontagne’s vocals perfectly. It feels so often when his voice is at it’s most emotional that you can hear his thumb actually hit it’s first string.

Listen to one song on Till The Sun Turns Black, it doesn’t matter which one, and if you like it immediately buy the CD. You will only turn it off when you realize it has already played a couple of times and you should probably listen to something else.

I’ll leave you with one other lyric from the song “Lesson Learned“.

So why is it now
after I have had my fill
would you steal from me
the sorrow that I’ve earned

Shall we call this a lesson learned