Ramona is a magnificent display of Australian singer and songwriter Grace Cummings’ powerful range. Unlike her previous two albums, which were self-produced, Cummings collaborated with Jonathan Wilson (who, among other notable releases, produced the last two albums by Father John Misty) to create this record. With lavishly orchestrated songs and rich, soulful vocals, Cummings reflects on grief, self-destruction, and emotional violence throughout the eleven songs that make up Ramona. The album takes your breath away from the very first track, “Something Going ‘Round,” and the very first line that Cummings sings: “Time rolls by, again / Today, by and by / The old, it waves / And I don’t know why / I come back each time, just a little more grey.”
The song gradually builds in intensity to reveal Cummings’ vocal prowess as she belt the lines, “I think it was Autumn” as the orchestra swells. The next few songs fluctuate in intensity but remain steadfast in emotion: “Work Today (and Tomorrow)” is perhaps the most devastating on the album, where Cummings’ rich voice pairs with the strings will make you ache in all the right places. Truly. Her raw voice is full of hurt and vulnerability, creating something beautiful. Later, “Everybody’s Somebody” approaches emotion with a different, more theatrical, flair.
“Common Man” shifts the album’s tone a bit, with a galloping beat accompanying Cummings’ lyrics about wanting to be a cowboy: “A person I once knew wrote a song about wanting to be a common man: work 9 to 5, come home and have a cup of tea, and be so tired he wouldn’t worry about anything and go right to sleep,” reveals Cummings about the song in a press release. “That sounds like my worst nightmare, so I wrote about wanting to be a cowboy instead, which to me represents complete freedom and detachment from this mundane world.”