Ray Johnson Explores Love, Loss and Self-Worth on New Album WaterColors

Ray Johnson Combines Classic Pop and Honest Storytelling on WaterColors.

Some albums work fine in the background. Ray Johnson’s WaterColors isn’t one of them. It’s the kind of record you put on when you’ve got time to actually listen. The singer-songwriter from St. Charles, Illinois, built the album around a handful of big human feelings: love, separation, personal loss, and self-worth. Each song takes one of them on, and while the album is clearly personal, it’s never hard to find yourself in it.

Johnson borrows from two eras. His melodies lean on the jangly pop of the 1960s, and his lyrics come from the 1970s singer-songwriter school, where the story mattered most. Put together, that gives WaterColors a classic sound that fans of folk rock, acoustic pop and gentler singer-songwriter records should warm to quickly. Johnson isn’t following trends here. He writes the kind of songs he loves and lets the words and tunes do the work. There’s something refreshing about that, especially at a time when so much new music sounds built for a quick scroll.

The idea behind the album is a nice one. Johnson thinks of each song as a different shade of colour, with every track showing an emotion in its own way. It’s simple, but it fits a record that jumps between different experiences. Love and separation, for example, often go hand in hand, yet they feel nothing alike. Giving each one its own song means each story gets told properly.

Ray Johnson’s "WaterColors" Blends the Jangly Pop Sounds of the 60s With 70s Singer-Songwriter Storytelling to Explore Love, Loss, Self-Worth and the Many Shades of Human Emotion Through Acoustic Folk-Rock.

Lyrics are clearly a big deal for Johnson. He uses imagery, metaphor, and simile to get his feelings across, the same tools folk and singer-songwriter music has always relied on. With the music kept soft and uncluttered, the words come through clearly. If you’re the type who reads along with the lyrics, you’ll find plenty to keep you coming back, and you’ll probably catch something new on the second or third listen.

Johnson has been writing and playing for years and has close to 100 songs to his name. You can hear that experience in how easily his melodies flow and how comfortably he moves between styles, from acoustic love songs to folk-pop and acoustic rock. His influences may be decades old, but he isn’t just copying the records he grew up with. He takes what he loves about them and makes it his own. The songs sound familiar, but they aren’t trading on nostalgia alone.

What I like most about WaterColors is that it doesn’t pretend feelings are simple. They almost never are. Love can make you happy and let you down in the same week. Loss can change how you see yourself and everyone around you. Self-worth is something most of us are still figuring out. By giving each of these its own space, Johnson ends up with an album a lot of people will recognise from their own lives.

The album also flows well from start to finish. Because each song deals with a different feeling, the mood shifts as you go, a bit like flipping through an old photo album. Some tracks feel warm and hopeful, others quieter and more bruised. Listening in order, you get the sense of a whole life being pieced together, one colour at a time.

WaterColors sticks close to the singer-songwriter tradition. Johnson cares more about a good story and a good tune than about showing off, and the album is better for it. If you like classic-sounding folk rock, acoustic pop, and songs where the words really count, pour a drink, find a quiet evening, and give this one a proper listen.