Josh Ritter review

"The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter"
My brother and Erin gave me this record for my birthday, and at first I had my reservations. I've heard this guy before. His other records are sort of mediocre acoustic folk. You know, guy-with-a-guitar kinda stuff. I was completely ready to be unimpressed.

Folks, the thing hasn't left my player. This is not the singer/songwriter stuff of his past. This is a band album. These songs are written for a band. Arranged for a band. This is like a country version of Spoon's "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" which I reviewed here a while ago. This is a rock band, not some folkie yokel. There are just some real baddass whole-band parts that make you poise just before the instant where everything comes together- I hope you know that feeling, that hold-your-breath-as-it-HITS feeling. Man, this record is full of those moments.

Ritter also has a handle on lyric writing. Literary types will tell you that half of a good poem is the phrasing- how the words sound together, regardless of their meaning. And this guy really gets that. In "To the Dogs of Whoever", Ritter opens with:
"Deep in the belly of a whale I found her / Down with the deep blue jail around her/ running her hands through the ribs in the dark" The alliteration of down and deep and running and ribs give these lines such a distinct flow.
Also, Ritter gets tuff with:

"All these kids who think they're quick on the draw / I'm busy keeping my Colt cocked" sounds like gangsta rap (from "Mind's Eye")

and

"My orchestra is gigantic / This thing could sink the Titanic / And the string section's screaming like horses in a barn burnin' up" (from "Rumors")

Ritter takes a softer aproach and shows his sense of humor, romance, and imagination in the Elliot Smith-esque "The Temptation of Adam"- a song about two soldiers manning a top secret nuclear missile silo who fall in love. Ritter finds ways to cleverly use words like warhead, half-life, fusion, rations, W.W.I.I.I. to describe love.

I dunno, maybe my favorite album of the year? ..... stay tuned my best of 07 list is coming soon.