listen to new ray lamontagne tracks: ‘for the summer’ and ‘the devil’s in the jukebox’

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Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

listen to new ray lamontagne tracks: ‘for the summer’ and ‘the devil’s in the jukebox’

it was beautiful news a couple months ago when it was announced that ray lamontagne will be releasing the follow-up to 2008’s gossip in the grain on august 17. the album, god willin’ & the creek don’t rise, will be released under the moniker, ray lamontagne & the pariah dogs. shortly after the announcement of the new album, ray did us all a beautiful favor with the youtube-embedded release of a new track, beg steal or borrow.

now, two more tracks have surfaced.

ray lamontagne and the pariah dog god willin and the creek don't risethe two new tracks, for the summer and the devil’s in the jukebox, were released today. summer was released for free on amazon, while devil’s was premiered on stereogum.

i’ve done the dirty work and brought them both to you here.

more than even with beg, steal or borrow, these tracks make me excited for the album due out in a couple weeks. in contrast to gossip in the grain, these tracks reveal a more jovial, throwback feel. sounds like ray and the band had fun recording the album sans long-time producer ethan johns. as good of a producer than johns is (having worked with ryan adams, rufus wainwright & kings of leon, to name a few), there’s a lot of compromise that an artist has to make when letting go of the production. in a recent interview, speaking about his departure from johns, ray said,

just to put it very simply, there’s lots of concessions you have to make, the more cooks you have in the kitchen. at a certain point, i just feel like, i guess, it’s just time for change.

so, less compromise. sounds good to me. do your thing, ray.

without further ado, here’s for the summer & the devil’s in the jukebox.