Ray of hope
LAMONTAGNE WANTS TO SHARE JOY OF EPIC ’60S ROCK IN ‘OUROBOROS’
While making his new album “Ouroboros,” Ray LaMontagne wanted people to remember the revelation of discovering new music. You know the scene: candles, lava lamp, maybe some incense burning, and the Beatles or Rush or Flaming Lips on stereo.
But LaMontagne — who headlines the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion tomorrow and Sunday — didn't want just anyone to remember this joy. He wanted the suits at his label, RCA Records, to flash back to when they fell in love with epic, sprawling rock albums.
“I wanted to remind them what it was like when they were 19 and hearing `Dark Side of the Moon' or `Blonde on Blonde' for the first time with their friends,” said the New Hampshire native who now lives in rural Western Massachusetts.
“The record business has tanked, there's not a market for albums anymore, so I can put myself in their shoes,” he added. “But there has to be room for this kind of album; I know there's a place in the world for it.”
LaMontagne is right, there's room for “Ouroboros”: It debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard charts and has fans excited enough to fill two shows at the Pavilion.
While the response makes sense — the songs possess a wild, vital and arty energy — you can hear why RCA would worry about selling it.
LaMontagne had vinyl on the brain when making “Ouroboros,” so the LP has an A side and B side. On each side the songs flow together like that river under marmalade skies in “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” — the music owes a lot to the psychedelic '60s, with sonic passages that could be straight out of early Pink Floyd, Genesis or Traffic catalogs.
“I don't really know how this record came to be,” LaMontagne said. “I still write in the same way, but the difference maybe was having less Ray, less me, involved. Writing can be kind of mystical, and you can't force things. You have to let the songs go where they want to go.”
LaMontagne had to sell this vision to his label, but his producer — My Morning Jacket leader Jim James — hopped on board immediately.
Like the singer's last project, “Supernova,” which Black Keys' singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach produced, “Ouroboros” benefits from a loving-but-forceful producer.
“Dan and Jim have polar-opposite personalities, but I was very comfortable with both of them,” LaMontagne said. “Jim knew what I wanted, and he was very open to going inside the songs to getting the right sound. Everyone in the room wanted to do the music justice.”
With talent, art and some great, freaky guitar solos, LaMontagne won over his label, fans and producers. But radio will be a challenge — on closing track “Wouldn't It Make a Lovely Photograph” he even sings, “Never gonna hear this song on the radio.”
The man who conjured unlikely hits in “You Are the Best Thing” and “Beg Steal or Borrow” isn't fretting over FM airplay.
“I made exactly what radio doesn't want, music with patience and space,” he said. “But I love a groove that just goes on, that sets in, and I'm happy with what I've made.”