Consumer Guide Album

Ray Lamontagne: Trouble [RCA, 2004]
I admire LaMontagne, who's had nothing handed to him. But it bodes ill that the Stephen Stills album that moved him to quit his factory job was a '90s one. Just as we live in a world where some radio stations get on Stills's latest, we live in a world where some record buyers suck up folk-rock verities--to which LaMontagne adds nothing but a backstory. Since his admirers bring up Van Morrison, it is my duty to report that he lacks Morrison's voice, poetry, Gaelic soul, and r&b feel--in other words, everything that once made Van worth bringing up. Nothing lasts forever, folk-rock included. C+