The Noise, October 2011

Working with her terrific small combo of John Sands (drums), Kimon Kirk or Jim Haggerty (bass), and Thomas Juliano (guitar), Ramona has created some of the best music of her career. Four of the tunes are assuredly masterstrokes - "Small Circle of Light" (a gorgeous overview of her folks' sixty year relationship which builds into a compelling dramatic coda a la Brian Wilson), "State of Being Grey" (middle-agers moving onwards), "Idiot's Delight" (a moving rocker about separation), and "Salt of the Sea" (a perky woe-is-me tale w/ vocals by her sons). Other facets to applaud are her keyboard playing and especially her vocals - delicate, true, and rich in harmonic textures. The entire album pours down like silver. Totally sublime!!!

CD Baby Review, September 2011

On "Small Circle of Light" Boston based Ramona Silver manages to transport the listener to such far-flung ports of call as Queen, Nancy Griffith, Til Tuesday and The Carpenters without ever sinking into pastiche. The music is familiar yet fresh, the lyrics intelligent and poignant. As the final note of the opening track 'Hero' faded, I was torn between the desire to hear it again immediately and the competing one to see what new delights awaited. My solution was to listen to all seven songs and let it start over again. Either way you won't be sorry.

Northeast Performer Magazine, June 2006

Ramona Silver's charming lastest album, Intermission, is fun and fully entertaining. A medley of pop, rock, and punk-emo, each of the six-songs contains a pocket full of confetti while offering an earful of pleasureable noise. The pop of Intermission is mostly of the '80s variety, while the rock whispers sweet reminiscences of '60s percussion and surf guitar, and the punk-emo aspects remain of the Wheezer sort. With the party panache of the B-52s, Toni Basil, or Bananarama, and an attitude like Aimee Mann's Flight of the Dodo, Intermission is clean and splendid.

The intrigue of this short album is the way in which Silver works with the quaint, but adds quirk. Outlined by cliche song structures, but embellished by instrumental and vocal contrasts, Silver's songwriting plays on the familiar while adding a few flurries. The music calls upon basic chord progressions, poppy bass lines and straight grooves working in homophonic unity, but is accented by contrasting vocal and keyboard melodies and catchy riffs. With occasional half-time pre-chorus and syncopated clap, the album deviates from impending normalcy, and offers music with spunk and avant-garde tendencies. The album's up tempo, danceable grooves inspire movement, but Silver's audiences may not be sure whether they should do the mashed potato, skank or just nod their heads and smile.

The cover of Intermission appropriately represents the nonchalant, unpretentious vibe of Silver's music. Blue laced up sneakers punctuate crisscrossed legs, casually out-strewn on a hardwood floor behind a closed stage curtain. The album and its cover seem to say, "there's a world of lights and glamour, pressure and pain beyond that dark curtain, but I'm just gonna' chill here for a while." When Silver asks, in the opening lines of her second track, "If I sing will you come out?" we can answer an affirmative yes.

The Noise, May 2006

No one on this earth puts four minutes of genius into a pop song the way Ramona Silver does.  This all-too-short EP manages to squeeze in the best singer-songwriter elements of Liz Phair, the lyrical complexity of Elvis Costello, the angular pop of XTC, the innocent sophistication of Harry Nilsson, and the maturity of Aimee Mann, while at the same time making it sound as fresh as when the day was new. Ramona Silver’s music has always been a breath of fresh air for me for many years.  Each new release is better and better, gaining more layers of pop sensibilities and singable melodies along the way.  I could say this EP is the best thing that she’s ever done, but then a year from now, there will come along another Ramona Silver album to challenge that assessment. If you ever get a chance to see her live, by all means do.  Her music is as she is, complex, accessible and completely without pretense.  

The Patriot Ledger

Silver's new CD continues her trend towards upbeat-if-still-irreverent perspectives on life and love, and especially family life. "Home is Where" rides a quirkily fascinating New Wave-like rhythm, while the ballad "Tricky World" suggest Elvis Costello playing in Brian Wilson's sandbox. Typical Silver music, the CD is full of surprises, and also full of understated optimism.

Boston Phoenix Editor's Picks

By the last night of her April residency at the Lizard Lounge, we're guessing Ramona Silver, one of the more consistently excellent and surprisingly under-appreciated singer-songwriters around town for the past decade, and her band have pretty much nailed the six new tunes on her recently self-released Intermission EP.

Boston Globe Quick Picks

An Intermission not to Miss -- Whip-smart rocker (and proud Bostonian) Ramona Silver...who has opened for Matthew Sweet and Sam Phillips, is promoting her latest album, "Intermission," which features material sure to please indie, folk, and pop music fans.

Hippo Press

She is a mix of the innocence of Lisa Loeb and the attitude of Ellie Vee of the Charms...Silver can create a radio-friendly ballad like "Tricky World," but she'll quickly remind you of her clever, edgy side with a tune like the title track "Home is Where."

Billboard Magazine

Our area has alway produced an array of fine women singer-songwriters, from Aimee Mann to Jen Trynin to Mary Lou Lord, and the next in line is Ramona Silver...she's one of the best young songwriters in any genre that this town has produced of late. Silver brings wit, style and substance to her music, which overflows with intelligent lyrics, smart melodies and more than a little bit of muscle...Undoubtedly, Silver's a major talent waiting to be discovered.

Rhapsody.com

Listening to records is a bit like having conversations with strangers. Some have a way of getting right into your soul, while others meander meaninglessly until you hit the stop button. And sometimes, it's just a thread of sincerity that holds your attention; and with Ramona Silver's songs it's enough to keep you talking about the weather all day long. Her tuneful guitars, bass, drums, and church organ may not inspire a new sonic revolution; but her loose arrangements and the calm resonance of her voice leave you wanting more.

Anodyne: Joy Rides

Another pop darling from Boston has arrived. Let us rejoice. And she's quirky, throwing in a child, ukulele, trombone, glockenspiel, organ, and cornet into the standard recipe to spice up her stories. Well done and strangely familiar; after just a couple of spins, you'll catch yourself tapping and singing right along with Silver's sweet, bouncing-on-a-cloud vocals. Silver is gold.

Boston Globe Calendar: Recordings (Ultrasound)

Ramona Silver is not an easily understood artist...She sounds like a sisterly version of Jonathan Richman in her oblique, street-simple, yet street-smart lyrics that posit such philosophical puzzles as "Being's just a reaction to everything we can't control" and "You want to be a woman but you're more of a man than I." At times she sounds like a cross between Lisa Loeb and XTC in melding poetic sensibility and intricate songcraft into something that's unique and wonderful (the skewed alternative pop of "Honeydew"). There's no denying the piquant genius behind "Mary's Beat-Up Truck," "B.J.'s Got the Butterflies," and the a cappella "Remarks to Mr. McLuhan."

The Noise: Rock Around Boston

Ramona Silver is a virtuoso of pop songcraft, and her contribution to the Boston music scene will stand the test of time.