Album: David Ramirez – “My Love Is A Hurricane” (out July 17 via Thirty Tigers
DAVID RAMIREZ
NEW ALBUM ‘MY LOVE IS A HURRICANE’
OUT JULY 17 2020 VIA THIRTY TIGERS
“David Ramirez has a voice like a tall tale, one minute strong and thick,
the next threadbare and careworn.” Stereogum
“If Springsteen made a record about living in Trump’s America, you’d
hope it might sound something like ‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’” Uncut
“It’s not easy for a writer to maintain the aura of the unspoken in a song…
David Ramirez does so beautifully.” NPR Music
“Mr. Ramirez is a resolutely hesitant singer, never pushing his hurt, letting it
instead decay him from within.” The New York Times
“Politics seldom sound this heartfelt and honest.” **** Q
Critically-acclaimed American artist David Ramirez has now announced the release of his forthcoming fifth album, ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’. Due for release July 17th via Sweetworld/Thirty Tigers, the album arrives following the defiant, politically-charged 2017 LP ‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’ – “If Springsteen made a record about living in Trump’s America, you’d hope it might sound like [this]”, said Uncut – and is the latest in a prolific body of work that’s been evolving from stark, earnest Americana into something far more expansive, now experimenting with pianos, synths and gospel/R&B influences. Where Ramirez’s last album painted a picture of life in contemporary America through the lens of his own Mexican heritage, ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’ is an even more personal and introspective affair; a ten-track collection charting the tumultuous, unpredictable journey of falling in and out of love, written over the course of such a relationship.
The album’s roots go back to the Summer of 2017, Ramirez had fallen in love with someone who, despite having only just met, felt incredibly familiar to him. “In past relationships, no matter how eager I was to feel loved and to give love, there had always been a hesitation to crawl out of my old life. I didn’t feel this,” he says. With that year’s ‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’ LP soon to be released and followed by a period of touring across Europe and the US, Ramirez began to pen his next album and hopeful odes to new love spilled out. Each track he put to paper exploring the ways in which relationships mature and grow as time passes and cracks start to show. Once complete, Ramirez would head into the studio with Dallas producer Jason Burt (Leon Bridges, Sarah Jaffe) and the incoming ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’ was brought to life.
Songs like the brooding, piano-driven R&B of ‘Lover, Will You Lead Me?’ are filled with vivid images from the heart: I recognized you from some distant dream / Like when it rains on a cold day / I had a chill in my bones / Is it true what they say / When you know, you know. Talking about ‘I Wanna Live In Your Bedroom’ – a piece of sprawling, atmospheric Americana – Ramirez recalls: “I was looking around at all the perfectly curated pieces in her room. Everything was so intentional and held a story and a place in her heart. I wanted to be one of those pieces,” he continues: “It was written just minutes after we woke up together on a hazy winter day. How sweet and simple is love in that moment?”. Elsewhere, on the sultry dream-pop of ‘Heaven’, he sings: We’re both floating among the stars / Falling into the street outside the bar / It’s not a waste of time wasting my time with you if it’s all I ever do.
Halfway through writing the album, however, the relationship that had inspired a new burst of creativity in Ramirez ended up falling apart. Instead of scrapping the songs, however, he began to channel all of his negative thoughts into words instead. From this emotional purge, he soon began to see the beauty in what he’d gone through and found himself writing the lyrics that would become the emphatic, revelatory album-standout ‘Hallelujah, Love Is Real!’ – in which Ramirez’s powerful vocals are underpinned by heavy basslines, layers of synths and joyous gospel backing vocals. “I was reminded of a great line in the film Vanilla Sky, ‘The sweet is never as sweet without the sour.’ I decided to celebrate Love,” he explains. “I wasn’t gonna write about how it made me feel in that moment. I was going to write about its existence and how thankful I am for having known it.”
It’s been ten years since David Ramirez’s debut ‘American Soil’ LP was released and quickly led to a loyal, fast-growing audience not just in the US but in the UK and Europe too. Since his debut, Ramirez has continued to reach successive new heights with 2012’s ‘Apologies’, 2015’s ‘Fables and his latest ‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’ album, each met with a growing list of sold-out UK dates and praise from the likes of Q, Uncut, The Independent and The Guardian. ‘My Love Is A Hurricane’, his fifth album and eighth collection of songs due for release July 17th, isn’t just Ramirez’s most personal and introspective album to date but it also sees him push the boundaries of his constantly-evolving sound once again.
‘MY LOVE IS A HURRICANE’ TRACK-LIST
Lover, Will You Lead Me?
Hell
I Wanna Live In Your Bedroom
My Love Is A Hurricane
Hallelujah, Love Is Real!
Heaven
Shine on Me
Easy Does It
Coast To Coast
Prevail
DAVID RAMIREZ LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/davidramirezaustin/
https://twitter.com/ramirezdavid