Reviews
Artist:David Ramirez Album: My Love Is A Hurricane
Label: Thirty Tigers
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.davidramirezmusic.com
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, prolific singer-songwriter David Ramirez has earned an enthusiastic following borne out of his stellar live performances, prodigious work ethic and deeply emotive voice.
Stylistically he is hard to pigeon hole with a heart in country, folk and Americana whilst on record his albums have been coloured with rock, indie and soul production values.
The story goes that whilst at college and forming a rock band with home town friends, David heard an album by Ryan Adams and was immediately captivated, leading him to explore both contemporary folk and the legends of the 60's and 70's, particularly the work of Bob Dylan.
Following this epiphany, he released his first albums in 2003 and 2005 before locating to Nashville to focus on his solo, acoustic music. Moving on, he released an EP in 2008 and from then on has continued to tour relentlessly and release albums at a very regular rate.
I first came across David when idly scrolling through YouTube and stumbled on the track 'Stick Around' from his 2012 album 'Apologies', and lastly on his 2016 'Fables' release which was probably his last most obviously country/folk flavoured album. 2017's 'We're Not Going Anywhere' showcased more of an Indie/Rock oriented approach, which brings us bang up to date with 2020's 'My Love Is A Hurricane'.
Produced by multiple Grammy Award winner Dave Cobb, the album was originally conceived as a collection of love songs written by David in tribute to his partner, but one unforeseen break up later it became more of an exploration of the totality of love, loss and what comes after.
Opening track 'Love, Will You Lead Me' enters with striking musical lushness and scope, and whilst quite restrained for most part, that trademark voice is still sat right on top of the mix to drag the listener in.
'Hell Ft. Sir Woman' follows in similarly dreamy manner with a guest vocal that conjures up the stoner, trip hop vibe of Morcheeba, whilst despite having a title sounding a little like it was lifted from a Prince album, 'I Wanna Live In Your Bedroom' inhabits more straightforward ballad territory.
And so it goes through the rest of the record. Lyrically quite a narrow palette given the subject matter, but the dizzying sonic landscape and ambition is immense. Pop, retro R'n'B, soul, psychedelia, electro and all bases between with reference shades perhaps of Michael Kiwanuka and the divers boldness of LP (Laura Pergolizzi)
Having hinted at, or experimented with different stylistic structures on more recent recordings, this album is about as far away from David's earlier blue collar country folk as it's possible to get. Whilst it's always risky for any artist to produce something that maybe isn't typical of what attracted people to them in the first place, with 'My Love Is A Hurricane' I think David Ramirez will have his restless creativity rewarded handsomely.
Paul Jackson
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