ALBUM REVIEW: David Ramirez finds peace and confidence on ‘All the Not So Gentle Reminders’, his first record in four years

“The Music Man,” the lead single from the new David Ramirez, opens with an ode to the Walkman. Ramirez describes his younger self—innocent, free of existential dread—blindsided by mind-altering wonder when his dad gave him one. “The wheels began to turn / the magnets both took control,” Ramirez sings over loungey groove. “My world flipped upside down / through cheap plastic headphones.” It’s melodramatic, sure, with echoes of Nick Cave, but less apocalyptic by miles than Cave or even earlier Ramirez. It’s a song of awe at the transcendental power of music, with a chorus written to be heard two ways: “We’re all here for the music man,” and “we’re all here for the music, man.”

Ramirez hit an enviable peak with 2020’s My Love is a Hurricane, which charted the churning confusion of a relationship’s collapse from within. The Austin-via-Houston songwriter followed it with 2021’s Backslider, a hungover gospel album sung by a man a few rungs above rock bottom and unsure which direction he’s climbing. Four years later, All the Not So Gentle Reminders finds Ramirez back to his dynamic self. Synths and fuzzy guitars back emotionally astute lyrics. Choruses soar. And Ramirez rises, his trademark gothic Americana still as messy as life, but buoyed with confidence and self-assurance this accomplished songwriter hasn’t really displayed before.

“I gave myself time to burn / I gave myself time to be wild / time to avoid the healing,” Ramirez sings on “Waiting on the Dust to Settle. “I embraced all the volume / embraced all the static / but here comes the uninterrupted silence I’ve been missing.” It’s an anthemic, propulsive rocker, with Ramirez calm and collected among driving drums and arena-huge synthesizers. He hasn’t seen the light at the end of the tunnel just yet, but he knows it’s there.

This suffusion of hope is a new color for Ramirez, a welcome addition to the broad palette used across All the Not So Gentle Reminders. On cinematic Southwestern folk-rocker “A Bigger World,” a restless Ramirez craves anonymity.  “I like the long shot / the sure thing never sounded fun to me,” Ramirez admits on jazzy album closer “Dreams Come True.” On standout track “Twin Sized Beds” Ramirez charts the good times of a great relationship. A sultry baritone sax evocative of the BoJack Horseman theme implies passion and heat as Ramirez sings, “I hope when I’m next to you / all your pain fades away.”

The David Ramirez of All the Not So Gentle Reminders seems to have made a degree of peace with himself—one absent when he sang “Dark clouds / heavy debris / I know what it’s like to love me” on My Love is a Hurricane. Could he have found this without first bottoming out on Backslider?

Probably not.

David Ramirez’s All the Not So Gentle Reminders is out March 21 via Blue Corn Music