Marc Ribot - La carte d'une ville bleue

Map of a Blue City is the album where Marc Ribot finally sings, after thirty years of letting his guitar speak for others.

Ribot spent decades as downtown New York's most brilliantly reliable sideman, with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and John Zorn among the names who made him famous without ever putting his own voice on record. This 2025 album, produced by Ben Greenberg, changes that, and the results are closer to a singer-songwriter record than anything he's attempted, his vocals arriving lo-fi and gritty, a gentle growl over acoustic guitar work that's languorous and warm rather than demonstrative. Roots, bossa nova, no-wave and free jazz all come through, but nothing here feels like genre tourism, just Ribot drawing on everything he's actually played.

The title track extends beyond six minutes as the album's most exploratory statement, the guitar wandering while the vocals remain grounded. His reading of the Carter Family's "When the World's on Fire" transforms old-time gospel into something quietly disturbing, and "Sometime Jailhouse Blues" sets an Allen Ginsberg poem to music with real conviction rather than reverence. “Death of a Narcissist” features the sharpest and most direct songwriting on the album.

Thirty years of being everyone's secret weapon, and it turns out he had a lot to say himself.

Track listing

Side A

1. Elizabeth
2. For Celia
3. Say My Name
4. Daddy's Trip to Brazil
5. Map of a Blue City

Side B

1. Death of a Narcissist
2. When the World's on Fire
3. Sometime Jailhouse Blues
4. Optimism of the Spirit