The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)

I've nothing against wordy songsmiths, in fact I could be drawn to them, I can find myself unreasonably cross with a great verse that is repeated rather than developed. The closest comparison for me here would be Highway 61 Revisited, the only Dylan album I own but I like it a lot.

I've enjoyed this album, I'm listening to it again now and had it on in the car yesterday. I was planning just to play it again on my journey until I noticed that Apple Music had lined up Phosphorescent's sublime Song For Zula and the National's Fake Empire to follow. Good company indeed.

On my first listen I got the David Gray and Paul Simon references but they are fleeting and there are stronger comparisons for me with Jeff Buckley and fans of this might well enjoy Grace if you haven't already heard it.

There was even a hint of Leonard Cohen in there although obviously singing styles are very different.

Stand out tracks for me are Rattling Locks, Lantern and Another New World. The only song that I didn't like was Folk Bloodbath which is a shame as it's a clever idea but felt a bit of a dirge. Odd tracks are neither here nor there but agree that taken as a whole this is a pleasant listen. I'm stuck between a 6 and a 7 but as we've come to Lantern as I come to score it and it's such a pleasantly breezy song we'll go for the 7.

Quick edit- Remnant is a bit jarring. Good job that one wasn't playing when I came to score! I'll stick with 7
 
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RobMCFC said:
Well done, Mr Doogle.

So Runs the World Away – Josh Ritter (2010)

View attachment 42953

I’m probably setting myself up for a fall with my next selection. It’s an album that doesn’t have any obvious hooks: there’s no guitar solos, no fancy Hammond licks, no singalong choruses, and yet it’s one of my favourite albums released this century. I don’t think that it’s something that you can “get” in a single sitting, but hopefully, at least a few of you will hear enough to want to come back for a second listen.

That’s the way I felt when I first heard it. I knew on that first listen that I would love it after a few plays because it offers up so much to think about in the lyrics and invites repeat listens. It’s unlike most of the albums in my collection, but it was my first listen to Josh Ritter, and he is now the only 21st Century artist inside my top 15 (given that his debut was released in 1999, obviously the remainder of his work is post-2000).

The thing that makes his music so special, and this album in particular, is the lyrics. They unfold like some wonderful novel, or at least short story, and at least two of the tracks here will have you leaning into the speakers, wondering what the end of the story will bring. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s in with a shout of being the best lyricist since Dylan. Stephen King seems to think so.

So Runs the World Away takes its title from Hamlet and is full of stories of exploration, discovery, travel, science and mathematics. As already noted, the “sonic palette” is unusual for a pop/rock record, driven along by woodwind, brass and strings as much as it is by acoustic guitars and drums. In common with a lot of my favourite albums, the music is wonderfully arranged, and Ritter is supported by a superb band that has played alongside him for some time.

So, to the highlights. After the opening soundbite of “Curtains”, the first six tracks proper are pretty much faultless. “Change of Time” is an unusual opener, stuffed to bursting with maritime references, "Battered hulls and broken hardships. Leviathan and Lonely." I’ll come back to the third track later, but there’s some great lyrics and arrangements on everything in this section. The dramatic percussion that opens “Rattling Locks” which is then carried along by moody organ as the protagonist is left "out here in the cold with a wet face a-rattling your locks" and culminating in the sprightly “Lark”, which manages to open with a reference to “the golden ratio”.

This is followed by three tracks that are all different from one another: the poppy “The Lantern”, the extraordinary martial beat of “The Remnant” (which Josh Ritter describes as a mean song) and the delicate “See How Man Was Made”. The album ends with another pretty, uplifting acoustic number, “Long Shadows.”

But for me, the two standout story songs are “The Curse” and “Another new World”.

Remarkably, “The Curse” recounts an unusual love story between an ancient mummy and the archaeologist who excavates him. It sounds bonkers but it’s an incredibly detailed and moving song with a beautiful arrangement. I don’t know what it means, and it’s unlikely to make your summer playlist, but I could listen to it many times without getting bored.

Perhaps the best song on the album is “Another New World” – the story of a doomed Arctic explorer who is prepared to risk the thing he loves most for “another new world at the top of the world”. The song unfolds against dramatic music and is probably the musical equivalent of watching “The Terror”. On first listen, you are dying to know how the story ends (but I won’t spoil it for you). A bit of background reading reveals that the name of the ship, the Annabel Lee, is taken from the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name. A brilliant song, perhaps unsurpassed in its “detailed long-form story” genre (certainly in my collection).

You get even more out of the album when you start searching for some of the influences behind the songs: whilst “Southern Pacifica” sounds like it should be about a ship, the “Red, white and blue” apparently refers to an American railroad company and “Roxy Anne” is a mountain in Oregon. “Folk Bloodbath” is a kind of cover song, featuring infamous murderers from older songs, with the main refrain based on a song by Mississippi John Hurt. Whilst “The Remnant” is about a manhunt, the original objective seems to melt away as the protagonists become nothing against the vastness of the universe and creation.

Hopefully some will enjoy this, but either way, I’m eager to hear your thoughts. It was recommended by a fellow City fan on a non-City forum, so I hope that by nominating here, I can give something back to other City (and West Ham) fans.
Click to expand...
when do reviews have to be in by mate?
 
I was familiar with Josh Ritter as I have his first two albums ‘Hello Starling’ and ‘ The Golden Age of Radio’ in my collection.However I’ve not heard any tracks from this album before.

I agree there are lots of influences here, David Gray and Paul Simon being

the obvious but like Journolud I can hear Lenard Cohen both in the music and the lyrics.The earlier albums were very similar to David Grays earlier albums in them being mainly acoustic guitar driven.

I like JR voice which is a good start, as already mention there are a lot of good songs on this album, the standout for me being ‘The Curse’

I just love this song and even my wife insists on me playing it, which is very unusual.

There’s a good mix of styles and melodies including the gospel of

‘Folk Bloodbath’

The main criticism is its quite a long album so my interest wains towards the end.



A great pick worth a 7 plus an extra 1 for ‘The Curse’



So 8
 
journolud said:
I've nothing against wordy songsmiths, in fact I could be drawn to them, I can find myself unreasonably cross with a great verse that is repeated rather than developed. The closest comparison for me here would be Highway 61 Revisited, the only Dylan album I own but I like it a lot.

I've enjoyed this album, I'm listening to it again now and had it on in the car yesterday. I was planning just to play it again on my journey until I noticed that Apple Music had lined up Phosphorescent's sublime Song For Zula and the National's Fake Empire to follow. Good company indeed.

On my first listen I got the David Gray and Paul Simon references but they are fleeting and there are stronger comparisons for me with Jeff Buckley and fans of this might well enjoy Grace if you haven't already heard it.

There was even a hint of Leonard Cohen in there although obviously singing styles are very different.

Stand out tracks for me are Rattling Locks, Lantern and Another New World. The only song that I didn't like was Folk Bloodbath which is a shame as it's a clever idea but felt a bit of a dirge. Odd tracks are neither here nor there but agree that taken as a whole this is a pleasant listen. I'm stuck between a 6 and a 7 but as we've come to Lantern as I come to score it and it's such a pleasantly breezy song we'll go for the 7.

Quick edit- Remnant is a bit jarring. Good job that one wasn't playing when I came to score! I'll stick with 7
Click to expand...
This is a very good review. Jeff Buckley is a good shout. I agree on Folk Bloodbath too -- didn't care for it but I saw what he was trying to recreate there -- hillbilly elegies just not my style of choice.
 
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