I’ve been trying to write about this album for weeks but have found it incredibly difficult to pin down exactly why I like it so much. We’ve long been fans of Ricky Eat Acid here at WTD (in fact we have featured songs from this album twice already: here and here), and I kind of felt like I was going to wax lyrical about a cool LP just because I knew it was going to be a cool LP.
So… what was the epiphanic moment? I reached the opinion that my inability to nail down exactly what is good about the album is a sign of what makes it special. And when I say ‘what is good’ I don’t mean I had to look for something obviously good in the craft or the writing, we all know that Sam Ray is excellent, but rather what I was feeling that made it such a compelling listen.
Three Love Songs is the kind of record that demands your attention, expecting a little bit of effort or perseverance before the payoff. The first section is foggy and indistinct and you feel as if you are experiencing it through some sort of filter, like those dreams where your vision in impaired it some strange way. Around halfway through things come into focus as bit more, and the picture becomes clearer. Yet you are still left with a nagging sense that something weird is going on, that you aren’t quite able to experience it in its purest form. The sensation drives you back to the beginning to look for clues, probing every second of each track for the missing piece of the puzzle. Most albums would be happy to have the listener sit back, content, with their thoughts wandering. Ray has reached the level where he wants more.
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Aside from all this overwrought description, and ignoring the possible injustice of pigeon-holing something so amorphous into a genre, Three Loves Songs is a great example of ambient/experimental music. The fact that Ray manages to cram so much food for thought in what are essentially twelve tracks of weird dance music is an achievement worthy of high praise.
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I hope that explanation is halfway coherent. The task of writing this has been akin to describing a smell or flavour without referencing the direct source – a head full of thoughts is useless without the right words to set them on a page.
You’d be best off just buying the album right now and listening to it for yourself. Get it on beautiful transparent or baby pink vinyl via Orchid Tapes, or as a name-your-price download via the Ricky Eat Acid Bandcamp page.