Josh Ritter - The Beast In Its Tracks (15/09/2013)
A songwriter’s dream, Josh Ritter has built a career as a musician by echoing confessional approaches with overly personalizing lyrics.
Rather than focus on broad spectrum of history unlike ‘The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter’ and ‘So Runs The World Away’. Ritter’s seventh full-length album ‘The Beast In Its Tracks’ seemingly abandons the historical canvas of past albums and emerges as more of a personal album, smaller yet more detailed.
In order to understand this album, listeners must first understand Ritter’s inspiration of writing ‘The Beast In Its Tracks’.
Essentially, Ritter’s latest work is a break-up album, inspired by his recent divorce from singer-songwriter Dawn Landes. While this may imply an album filled with spiteful, messy emotions, ‘Beast’ is quite the opposite, rather carrying on a year afterwards and recounting a new and stable relationship for Ritter.
This of course derives the album from a somber mess to a reflective, forgiving enactment, a means of burying a spiteful relationship to a commit to another. In one sense, the album is very level and very past tense. For example, ‘Nightmares’ the fifth track in the play list carries heavily inspired lyrics of pain but is side tracked with a playful and energetic melody.
Perhaps the greatest moment of the album is ‘Evil Eye’, when Ritter in a spur of thought, realizes the similarities between his new wife and past.
‘The Beast In The Tracks’ unlike Ritter’s past albums ignores the heavy arrangements and instead relies on a few instruments to carry each other.
In-turn each song builds the momentum to continue the themes featured in the album’s lyrics. It is an effective and admirable feat by Ritter, delving into an album that explore just how much his divorce has changed him and his road to redemption afterwards.
Jason Cheung
Rather than focus on broad spectrum of history unlike ‘The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter’ and ‘So Runs The World Away’. Ritter’s seventh full-length album ‘The Beast In Its Tracks’ seemingly abandons the historical canvas of past albums and emerges as more of a personal album, smaller yet more detailed.
In order to understand this album, listeners must first understand Ritter’s inspiration of writing ‘The Beast In Its Tracks’.
Essentially, Ritter’s latest work is a break-up album, inspired by his recent divorce from singer-songwriter Dawn Landes. While this may imply an album filled with spiteful, messy emotions, ‘Beast’ is quite the opposite, rather carrying on a year afterwards and recounting a new and stable relationship for Ritter.
This of course derives the album from a somber mess to a reflective, forgiving enactment, a means of burying a spiteful relationship to a commit to another. In one sense, the album is very level and very past tense. For example, ‘Nightmares’ the fifth track in the play list carries heavily inspired lyrics of pain but is side tracked with a playful and energetic melody.
Perhaps the greatest moment of the album is ‘Evil Eye’, when Ritter in a spur of thought, realizes the similarities between his new wife and past.
‘The Beast In The Tracks’ unlike Ritter’s past albums ignores the heavy arrangements and instead relies on a few instruments to carry each other.
In-turn each song builds the momentum to continue the themes featured in the album’s lyrics. It is an effective and admirable feat by Ritter, delving into an album that explore just how much his divorce has changed him and his road to redemption afterwards.
Jason Cheung