The latest release from Austin singer-songwriter David Ramirez, My Love Is A Hurricane, was initially meant to be a glorified love letter of sorts to his new partner, documenting his affections via song. Unfortunately, the relationship fell part in the middle of the project, giving the album a heavy dose of unanticipated heartbreak.
While there are certainly some strong tracks on the record, it is inconsistent at best, and understandably so. The album’s first few tracks, like the piano-heavy opener “Lover, Will You Lead Me?” and “I Wanna Live In Your Bedroom,” captures the artist in the early phases of new love, but the façade starts to crack and a rush of pain eventually spills out and bleeds over the rest of the album leading to songs like the title track. And it’s not a case of the love songs being better than the songs about loss, or vice versa, rather, the entire record is wrapped in a moodiness that simply seems too much when spread across 10 songs.
His knack for writing sly lyrics hasn’t been lost here (“I wasn’t born with a smile, but I’ll die with a grin,” Ramirez sings on “Shine On Me”), but there is a heaviness to this record that takes away from the overall enjoyment. There are a few breaks of levity – if not lyrically at least temp-wise, like on “Hallelujah, Love Is Real,” a post-break song that offers hints of optimism and is easily one of the obvious standout tracks on the record. Elsewhere, the relatively upbeat “Easy Does It,” is another song touching on fading love but offers a hopeful outlook, with its building horn section and rock steady drumming, is another much-needed call back to Ramirez on some of his earlier albums.
My Love Is A Hurricane was always going to be an ambitious effort, even before the goal went from tracking new love to the eventual loss of it and finding the way to move on, all in real time. The result is a mixed collection; some good, some a little more tedious, but in the end, you can’t deny that Ramirez stayed true to his objective and didn’t skimp on real emotion in the process.
