About

Grammy Award winner Ray LaMontagne [released] his sixth studio album Ouroboros on March 4th [2016] via RCA Records. Ouroboros was produced by Ray and Jim James of My Morning Jacket. The album was written by LaMontagne and will feature first single, “Hey, No Pressure” […] The single premiered on NPR’s All Songs Considered where they called the track an “inspired new song,” stamped the album “incredible,” and that Ray “has continued to push himself in different directions.”

Earlier, Ray sent a postcard to a small group of fans with a preview of the album:

‘Ladies and Gentleman,

I would like to extend to you this humble invitation: to be among a select few of my listening audience to hear a passage from my latest composition titled ‘Ouroboros’.

‘Ouroboros’ is an album musically unlike any I have recorded previously.  It did not make itself known to me in sections, sessions, or moments carved out of the clutter of every day life.  It presented itself as the simple question:

“Will you follow me?”

 Of course I couldn’t say no. I had to follow. What else could I do? 

I had nothing with which to record the journey that was taken. The album is merely an attempt to recreate, from memory, the landscapes, the colors, the sights and sounds that were experienced. I only thank God for the vividness of those experiences, and for the ease of their recollection.

I realize that in my invitation for you to listen, I am in fact asking something of you as well; for listening is not a purely passive act. Listening takes effort. To listen is to participate.

There can be no conversation without one who is first willing to listen.

And so I both invite you to, and ask if you might, sit, quiet your surroundings, quiet your mind, and listen as I present to you the question that was first presented to me:

Will you follow me?

Yrs,

Ray LaMontagne’ – Press release, RCA Records

“There’s a lot to be said for taking the slow and steady approach. This New England troubadour’s profile has grown on the back of a handful of great albums featuring that distinctive, soulful croak and weatherbeaten, introspective folk-pop songs.

[…] Ouroboros has moments of magnificent intensity (In My Own Way), while making room for effervescent wigouts (The Changing Man, Hey, No Pressure). As LaMontagne notes, you won’t hear these songs on the radio, but that’s their loss.” – Irish Times

“If you’ve had a late-night doobie-smoking session recently, chances are Ray LaMontagne has served as the soundtrack.

For more than a decade, the songwriter has crafted gorgeous folk rock that splits the difference between CSNY’s Laurel Canyon vibe and the quiet introspection of Nick Drake. But with his latest, produced by My Morning ­Jacket’s Jim James, he’s beefed up his sound for his loosest, most blissed-out set yet.

The title, Ouroboros, refers to the mythological symbol of a snake eating its own tail, and that’s exactly what LaMontagne’s created here: All eight tracks daisy-chain seamlessly. There are distinct moments: “Hey, No Pressure,” with its fuzzy Led Zep-style guitars, is as groovy as it sounds; “A Murmuration of Starlings” veers into a Dark Side of the Moon-ish space odyssey.

Even with such sonic experimentation, ­LaMontagne’s hushed, nicotine-­stained voice doesn’t get lost. “You’re never gonna hear this song on the radio,” he sighs on one track. And he’s right: Ouroboros is a perfect throwback to the lost art of the album-length format.” – Entertainment Weekly

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