{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = No Blue Thing | type = Album | artist = Ray Lynch | cover = Nobluething.jpg | alt = | released = August 15, 1989 | recorded = 1985–1989<ref name=KeyboardRev1>{{cite journal|title=In Review|journal=Keyboard|date=August 1989|volume=15|issue=9|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpAJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22no+blue+thing%22|accessdate=April 2, 2017|quote=And now, after a four-year wait, Lynch is back with more of the same.}}</ref> | studio = Ray Lynch's home studio<ref name=Keyboard1>{{cite journal|last1=Widders-Ellis|first1=Andy|title=Ray Lynch: Exploring the Structure of Music|journal=Keyboard|date=December 1989|volume=15|issue=12|page=29|quote=Lynch records and mixes his albums in his home studio.}}</ref><br/>Different Fur | genre = New-age | length = 39:21 | label = Music West<br />Windham Hill Records (reissue) | producer = Ray Lynch | prev_title = Deep Breakfast | prev_year = 1984 | next_title = Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening | next_year = 1993 }} {{Music ratings | rev1 = Allmusic | rev1Score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref name=All>{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r83332|pure_url=yes}}</ref> | rev2 = ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' | rev2Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2006|page=384|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|publisher=Muze|isbn=0195313739|edition=4th}}</ref> }} '''''No Blue Thing''''' is American new-age musician Ray Lynch's third studio album, released on August 15, 1989. It peaked at number 1 on Billboard's "Top New Age Albums" chart<ref name=NewAge>{{cite web|title=New Age Music: Top New Age Albums Chart|url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/new-age-albums/1989-09-09|website=Billboard|accessdate=15 August 2016}}</ref> as well as number 197 on Billboard's "Top 200 Albums".<ref name=NewAge2>{{cite web|title=Top 200 Albums|url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/1989-06-24|website=Billboard|accessdate=15 August 2016}}</ref> The album also peaked at number 16 on ''Gavin Report''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Most Added Adult Alternative|journal=Gavin Report|date=23 June 1989|issue=1762|pages=34|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Gavin-Report/80/89/Gavin-Report-1989-06-23.pdf|access-date=17 August 2016}}</ref>
==Production== In an interview with ''Keyboard'', Lynch said that he recorded between two and seven versions of the same song. Lynch also told Keyboard that "The True Spirit of Mom and Dad" took him about eight months to complete.<ref name=Keyboard2>{{cite journal|last1=Widders-Ellis|first1=Andy|title=Ray Lynch: Exploring the Structure of Music|journal=Keyboard|date=December 1989|volume=15|issue=12|page=29|quote=Most pieces on ''No Blue Thing'' had at least two versions, some had seven... I was working with larger structures and was more ambitious. 'The True Spirit of Mom and Dad'... took me eight months to finish.}}</ref>
==Reception== Keith Tuber of ''Orange Coast'' praised the album, commenting that Ray Lynch "has a way with melodies, combining classical, acoustic and synthesized pop elements.".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Tuber|first1=Keith|title=No Blue Thing, Ray Lynch|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62AEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22No+Blue+Thing%22+%2B+August+%2B+1989&pg=PA176|accessdate=March 19, 2017|work=Orange Coast Magazine|publisher=Emmis Communications|date=August 1989|language=en}}</ref> JA of ''Keyboard'' noted that some of the album is "more of the same" from ''Deep Breakfast'';<ref name=KeyboardRev1/> JA wrote that the "DX patches have a little more bit this time, but the trick of running staccato patterns through a delay line in triplet rhythm hadn't changed" and that the album, like his previous works, lack percussion instruments.<ref name=KeyboardRev2>{{cite journal|title=In Review|journal=Keyboard|date=August 1989|volume=15|issue=9|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpAJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22no+blue+thing%22|accessdate=April 2, 2017}}</ref> Robert Carlberg of ''Electronic Musician'' compared the album to Reed Maidenberg's ''Unexpected Beauty'', praising the album for its combination of electronic and acoustic instruments but criticizing it for having an overreliance of arpeggiations as well as its use of "plodding" time signatures and for its "warm, fuzzy" instrumentation. Carlberg concluded that the album's flaws "rob [both Lynch and Maidenberg] of whatever vitality classical training would bring."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Carlberg|first1=Robert|title=Economy Reviews|journal=Electronic Musician|date=September 1989|volume=5|issue=9|pages=104–105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rYpAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Ray+Lynch%22|accessdate=April 10, 2017|publisher=Polyphony Publishing Company|quote=I have almost exactly the same reaction to ''No Blue Thing'' by Ray Lynch [as to ''Unexpected Beauty'' by Reed Maidenberg]. Lynch also plays classical guitar in addition to keyboards...Both men are classically trained musicians, and it shows in their ability to divide the tracks into discrete sections. Unfortunately, the arpeggiation (in Lynch) and relentless plodding time signatures and "warm, fuzzy" instrumentation (in both) rob them of whatever vitally classical training would bring.}}</ref> John Diliberto of Jazziz Magazine criticized the album, calling it formulaic and concluded that the album "breaks no new ground".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dilaberto|first1=John|title=Ray Lynch - No Blue Thing|journal=CD Review Digest Annual|date=1990|volume=4|issue=1–2|page=76|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVBLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22While+there+is+classical+lyricism+and+chamber+music+instrumentation+amid+the+synthesizers+of+No+Blue+Thing%22|accessdate=March 27, 2017|quote=While there is classical lyricism and chamber music instrumentation amid the synthesizers of No Blue Thing, the disc also has the feel of formula music,...No Blue Thing breaks no new ground.}}</ref> ''Gavin Report'' wrote that each track on the album is worthy of the listener's attention, especially "The True Spirit of Mom & Dad", which was described as the "climactic final track" of the album.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Jazz New Releases|journal=Gavin Report|date=April 28, 1989|issue=1754|page=39|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Gavin-Report/80/89/Gavin-Report-1989-04-28.pdf|access-date=January 23, 2018}}</ref>
==Track listing== ''No Blue Thing'' includes the following tracks.<ref name=All/>
{{track listing | title1 = No Blue Thing | length1 = 5:37 | title2 = Clouds Below Your Knees | length2 = 4:53 | title3 = Here and Never Found | length3 = 4:46 | title4 = Drifted in a Deeper Land | length4 = 7:27 | title5 = Homeward at Last | length5 = 3:38 | title6 = Evenings, Yes | length6 = 4:52 | title7 = The True Spirit of Mom & Dad | length7 = 8:03 }}
== Personnel == All music composed, arranged, and produced by Ray Lynch.
* Ray Lynch – keyboards, classical guitar * Tom Canning – "guitar" keyboards on "Clouds Below Your Knees" * Timothy Day – flute * Julie Ann Giacobassi – oboe and English horn * Amy Hiraga – violin * David Kadarauch and Peter Wyrick – cello * Basil Vendryes and Geraldine Walther – viola
=== Production === * Mastered by Bernie Grundman and Daniel Ryman at (Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, California) * Mixed by Ray Lynch and Daniel Ryman at Ray Lynch Productions studio (designed and built by Daniel Ryman)except for “Evenings, Yes” (Recorded at Different Fur, San Francisco; engineered by Howard Johnston; mixed at Mobius, San Francisco)
==Charts== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Chart (1989) ! Position |- |''Billboard'' New Age Albums<ref name=NewAge/> | style="text-align:center;"|1 |- |''Billboard'' 200<ref name=NewAge2/> | style="text-align:center;"|197 |}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{Ray Lynch}}
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Category:Ray Lynch albums Category:1989 albums Category:Music West Records albums Category:Windham Hill Records albums