Events

[POP] If 2104’s Supernova was a series of mostly pleasant memories dressed up in psych-pop tones, Ray LaMontagne’s Ouroboros (out this past March on RCA)is the other side of the same tripped-out coin: eight new songs trudge through dark demons, cloaked in sprawling arrangements that mimic a fevered drug-dream. It’s an impressionistic concept album, and maybe a bitter pill for those who favor the acoustic ballads of his early releases.
 
As LaMontagne evolves, he tests our willingness to follow him down the rabbit hole. This is a particularly daunting task for a songwriter previously lauded for delivering romantic intimacy. Comparatively, on the Dan Auerbach co-produced Supernova, he sounded a million miles away—almost unreachable in a sunblind, neo-psychedelic swirl. Less gauzy than its predecessor, Ouroboros is an emotionally charged set that finds LaMontagne alternating between moments of madness and serenity; it’s as revealing as it is intense. The album was initially composed as one long 40-minute piece, eventually divided into sections with help from Jim James of My Morning Jacket—essentially LaMontagne’s band for the project and ensuing tour, which pulls into Artpark on Wednesday, June 29.
 
Sonically, the gentle opener “Homecoming” acts as chill-inducing reassurance that beneath the reverb-drenched, Pink-Floyd-odyssey styling, the Ray LaMontagne who seduced us a decade back is still very much intact. Moving forward, however, tension mounts. Cobbled from a gritty blues riff, the infectious “Hey No Pressure” reveals the conflicting messages that hurl our protagonist toward a breakdown, which plays out during “The Changing Man” and “While It Still Beats.” As LaMontagne propels into greater depths of despair, the soundtrack bears down accordingly, eventually reaching a pinnacle of force as the first half ends. During much of the album’s second act, he sounds like he’s recuperating.
 
Curiously, the disc ends with the repeated realization that, “You’re never going to hear this song on the radio,” as if he’s making peace with the fact that his muse has led him away from the idiom that initially gained him popularity.”But wouldn’t it make a lovely photograph?” he queries as the curtain falls. The intimacy of Ouroboros exists in the window it provides to the psyche of an artist struggling to maintain his sanity; it’s a completely different delivery system and the music lacks folkie charm, but it’s plenty compelling all the same. The Ouroboros Tour is three sets: a solo acoustic opening, followed by the new album in its entirety, featuring Tom Blankenship (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums), Carl Broemel (guitars) and Bo Koster (keys). An electric set of songs from Supernova and earlier follows.