Pitchfork's Anti-Folk Outlook: What's New vs What's Derivative

It's a sham that the evaluation of music is so closely associated with the taste and king making of “cool.” That certain aesthetics and cultural identities are so closely associated with certain types of alternative and independent music is absolutely inevitable, but when it comes to listening to music and evaluating it for its worth, it’s profoundly disappointing to learn certain bands and their albums are simply ignored because they lack identifiable factors of that niche brand of "cool" that is so rigorously developed and sold. I’m writing because one of the year’s best albums may not even be reviewed by what most consider the leading voice in online music criticism—and perhaps music criticism in general—and it’s a giant gaping hole in what’s touted as journalism.

Portland Giveaway: Josh Ritter Tickets

Everybody Taste folkie favorite Josh Ritter—whose So Runs The World Away we dubbed our 5th favorite album of 2010—will be in Portland on February 23rd to play the Crystal Ballroom along with Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. On stage, Ritter is a ball of unequaled energy and enthusiasm. Simply put, I couldn't recommend a show more highly. Luckily, I have two free tickets to give away. 

To enter, simply leave your favorite Josh Ritter song in the comments section below with an email address. A winner will be announced on Friday.

Josh Ritter - "Change of Time" (from So Runs The World Away)
Josh Ritter - "The Remnant (Wallpaper remix)" (from To The Yet Unknowing World)

UPDATE: Hey folks, I picked the winner out of a hat. Thanks for stopping by and playing. I hope you can still make it to the show! Cheers.

Josh Ritter & Dawn Landes - "500 Miles"

Josh Ritter, hot off the release of his critically-lauded LP So Runs The World Away, has released an impromptu cover song with his wife and fellow singer/songwriter Dawn Landes. Snag "500 Miles," originally performed by Hedy West, below.

Josh Ritter & Dawn Landes - "500 Miles" (Hedy West cover)

Josh Ritter and His Epic New Album

Throughout Josh Ritter's brief but impressive career he's always been a few things: a proficient songwriter, an impeccably detailed storyteller, and a restrained but gifted guitarist and singer. But never before have his songs been fitted with a sonic landscape as lush and complex as those on So Runs The World Away.

There's a true progression going on in Ritter's music: from his Townes Van Zandt-esque acoustic-centered first records to the political and deeply philosophical Animal Years and the unabashedly rollicking pop follow up The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter, the artist is an already renowned talent that's clearly pushing and reaching for something great.

With So Runs The World Away, he's certainly gotten a hold of something. There are few intimate moments here and definitely no carefree songs about drinking underneath the trees. This record instead screams "epic." Ritter puts it best himself: "I think of the songs on So Runs The World Away like pictures painted in oil on large canvasses. It's a record preoccupied with the extremes of scale, from infinitesimal particles to the nearly incomprehensible distances between the head of a pin and a nebula. Where the songs felt large to me, I wanted them to be huge, both musically and lyrically. I wanted them to feel like the steel hulls of massive ships sliding by deeply from below. Where they were small, I concentrated in on the smallest details that I could and we tried to make the music and the words work together. I love writing, and this was the most fulfilling record I've yet written."

With female backup singers, dissonant guitar noises, and seas of percussion this could easily be an overproduced mess—a common result when intelligent artists reach a certain level of success. But with Ritter's 6th full-length, there are no missteps. It's a gorgeous album, as thoughtful as it is beautifully performed. But will the general public bite?

Josh Ritter - "Change of Time" (from So Runs The World Away)

Josh Ritter - "Kathleen" (4 Songs Live EP)

Digging For Covers: The Boss's Disciples

The National - "Mansion On The Hill"

Marah - "Streets of Philadelphia"
Josh Ritter - "The River"
Deer Tick - "Nebraska"

Ted Leo - "Dancin' In The Dark"

AA Bondy - "I'm On Fire"

Spoon - "I'm Goin' Down"

Josh Ritter - "The Curse" (Daytrotter session)

Daytrotter has been on quite the roll recently with must-download sessions from Sharon Van Etten, Jeff The Brotherhood, and The Dutchess & The Duke. Today, the Rock Island-based studio released a set from uber-talented storyteller Josh Ritter. Ritter's new LP So Runs The World Away will have a vinyl release in independent record stores on Record Store Day, April 17th. You can now get a taste of the album with two songs from the session—"The Curse" and "Another New World." But you should really just grab the whole set.

Josh Ritter - "The Curse" (Daytrotter session)

Previously:

Josh Ritter - "Change of Time" (from So Runs The World Away)

Josh Ritter Returns with Album #6 in May

Josh Ritter is our generation's Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zant, Bob Dylan, etc. He's a brilliant, expansive and meticulous lyricist with a timeless sense of song craftsmanship to match it. After his topical and gut wrenching The Animal Years and foot-stomping pop follow-up The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter, the songwriter is slated to return with So Runs The World Away, his sixth album, due out May 4th. Here's a note from the overwhelmingly nice and sincere man himself about the new record:
Hello All!

“So Runs the World Away” took me over a year to make. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never recorded a song for a record that I didn’t believe in absolutely and that didn’t feel, in its writing, recording, and performance, like a moment of real inspiration. I love the songs on this record so much, and my thanks go to my incredible and talented band, my family, and my family of listeners wherever they may be in this fast-spinning world.

All my very best, and see you soon!
Josh

Josh Ritter - "Change of Time" (from So Runs The World Away) (photo by Rory Cobbe)

Dawn Landes - "Straight Lines"

There are plenty of reasons to like Dawn Landes: she plays the glockenspiel, has a background in sound engineering, covers the likes of Peter Bjorn & John and Tom Petty, and is married to fellow folky Josh Ritter. Most importantly, she has a beautiful voice and sticks it to some pretty good tunes. I highly recommend Landes's excellent performance of "Straight Lines" on the Black Cab Sessions. Then dig into her brilliantly layered version of Harry Nilsson's "Life Line"—multi-tracked vocals and guitars shimmering with hypnotic and endearing quirk. (Photo by Wrapped In Piano Strings)

Dawn Landes - "Straight Lines" (from Straight Lines)

Dawn Landes - "Life Line" (Harry Nilsson cover)

Sam Means - "Yeah Yeah"

Back in September, Sam Means—formerly half of beloved Arizona pop group The Format—returned to releasing records with a soundtrack for the independent comedy The Sinking of Santa Isabel. From the trailer, the film looks like it could have its moments—more or less a fable about avoiding growing up where one adult character literally lives in a tree house. With a nod to Josh Ritter's great "Wait For Love" in the trailer and 26 original hook-filled tracks by Means, you have to at least respect the director's musical taste.

Sam Means - "Yeah Yeah" (from The Sinking of Santa Isabel soundtrack)

10 Most Underappreciated Songs of the Decade

1.) Josh Ritter - "Thin Blue Flame" (from The Animal Years)

Nearly 10 minutes in length, Ritter's masterpiece is a "Stairway to Heaven"-caliber achievement with Jimmy Page's guitar licks exchanged for 700-plus words of poetry. Traversing a war-torn world and a host of Shakespearean, Biblical, and science-oriented images, Ritter finds solace in a ray of hope: "So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air / Only a full house gonna have a prayer."

2.) The Walkmen - "Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me is Gone" (from Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone)

With Hamiltoin Leithauser's Thom Yorke-like howls and the thick reverberations of pounding drums, organ and guitars, the Walkmen lay their claim on the world of popular music with their first post-Jonathan Fire*Eater album: mature, esoteric, and unpredictable.

3.) M. Ward - "Vincent O'Brien" (from Transfiguration Of Vincent)

It's hard to choose from M. Ward's catalogue: there's not one false step. However, this slow rollicking build-up of muted guitars, drums, and a riffing piano is one of the artist's most immediately convincing, due largely to its poetic simplicity: "He only sings when he's sad / And he's sad all the time / So he sings the whole night through / Yeah, he sings in the daytime too."

4.) Marah - "Round Eye Blues" (from Kids in Philly)

A pre-9/11 war song that escapes for moments into the imagery of a hard working James Brown and Little Richard and the rhythm of "Proud Mary" and "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay." The Bielanko brothers have never sounded so soulful and harnessed their love of Springsteen so sincerely.

5.) Peter & The Wolf - "Safe Travels" (from Lightness)
Set by a chorus of sighing voices and the light-hearted up-stroke of an acoustic guitar, the song's tone is an otherworldly one—simultaneously eery and soothing. With the addition of Red Hunter's calm near-spoken word voice, it's also impossible to forget.

6.) Exploding Hearts - "Sleeping Aides and Razorblades" (from Guitar Romantic)
Power-pop makes its triumphant and convincing return with the debut from this tragically short-lived Portland quartet. Here, the band delivers one of the all-time great break-up songs: "Well, I felt so bad when I heard that song / You know it's been such a long long time / It's a little offbeat and it ain't in tune / You know, it's just like this heart of mine."

7.) Tangiers - "I Wanna Go Out" (from Never Bring You Pleasure)

From the furiously fast thumping of drums to the tightly delivered power chords and slurred vocals, everything about this Tangiers song screams "release!" Whether you're carving down a wave or a concrete mountain, speeding down the coast or hurriedly throwing back a few, this is the song you'll want playing.

8.) El Ten Eleven - "My Only Swerving" (from El Ten Eleven)

For an entirely instrumental duo, Los Angeles's El Ten Eleven is remarkably expressive. Never more so than this cinematic blend of tremolo-infused riffs, popping double-bass notes, synthesized arpeggios, and orchestrated crash of cymbals.

9.) The Fruit Bats - "When You Love Somebody" (from Mouthfuls)

With the constant thud of a bass drum and smile-inducing hand claps (think The Beatles' "Two of Us"), this organ-built 60s-tinged pop song is treachorously addictive and often prone to repeated listening. If there's one reason to start listening to the Fruits Bats, it's this.

10.) Martha Wainwright - "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" (from Martha Wainwright)
This song may be directed towards Wainwright's neglectful father—folk singer Loudon Wainwright III— but this passionate stranglehold has the strength to kick more than one ass. And ass-kicking has never sounded so righteous and brutally poetic: "I will not pretend / I will not put on a smile / I will not say I'm all right for you / When all I wanted was to be good / To do everything in truth."

Favorites: Josh Ritter

There's always a "next Bob Dylan." Someone with insightful lyrics, songwriting chops, and a distinctive voice that bears a resemblance to the poetry-spewing God. But there won't ever be a second coming, just like there won't ever be another Michael Jordan. Instead, we have a collective of young songwriters—like M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Jim James—that together, come close to filling the void that Dylan's left behind.  

Add Josh Ritter to that mix. I first heard the Idahoan songwriter in the ski film Sinners by Warren Miller photographer Bill Heath. The song "Snow Is Gone" was a burst of sunshine set across Heath's stark and snow-filled landscape. Ritter, who studied American history through narrative folk music at Oberlin College, pairs a genuine and natural feel for the craft with a tremendous knowledge and care for it. His music merits comparisons to Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen, but none of the names stick. After listening to an album like The Animal Years, Ritter's the only name worth mentioning. And it's one worth remembering. 

Taste a little sunshine:

Josh Ritter - "Snow Is Gone" (mp3)

Buy: Amazon, Emusic, iTunes