7/3/2023 0 Comments Josh ritter full discography![]() ![]() Do I want Ritter to be consistent or to be a veritable roulette wheel of song styles where I’m never quite sure what I might get? I lean towards the latter, and Gathering certainly has its share of intriguing surprises to offer. So when I say that Gathering might not be remembered as one of Ritter’s all-time best records, that’s only because the sum of the parts isn’t as strong as it is on So Runs the World Away or 2007’s Historical Conquests, and there might be a few moments where tracks that would stand out individually suffer a little bit simply because they’re adjacent to like-minded compositions. I suppose I prefer a collage of different song ideas, some based more on showcasing the lyrics and some more of an abstract exercise intended to show off an interesting melodic or rhythmic idea, considering how dry and tedious Ritter’s work felt when he tried to stick with a singular, stripped-down mood for an entire record on 2013’s The Beast in Its Tracks. ![]() I suppose you could say something similar about So Runs the World Away, which had a few folksy rockers and long, languid ballads that might share some creative DNA with a few of the songs on this project. If there’s a flaw to Ritter’s approach on Gathering, it would seem to be that anything goes and there isn’t as obvious of a theme here. It’s pretty much immediately recognizable as having a voice that is uniquely his, and yet it feels like it branches out in some subtle new directions as well. And it’s a record that has a few echoes of the things I enjoyed about both of the past Ritter albums I’ve mentioned, as well as some of his older work. Much to my surprise, Gathering was announced about midway through the year, dropping in September of 2017. It felt like a carefully crafted record that took a lot of thought to put together, so I assumed there would be at least another three-year gap before he came up with another LP. I had already declared him to be one of my favorite songwriters after being wowed by several standout tracks on 2010’s So Runs the World Away, but Sermon was an interesting record that found Ritter playing with more prominent country influences, while offering a slight bit of backhanded commentary on the dark side of life in the rural Bible belt, and exploring more optimistic themes of what it meant to have a place to call home. His late 2015 release, Sermon on the Rocks, still feels somewhat fresh and new in my mind. ![]() Yep, it’s a Josh Ritter album, alright – though I wouldn’t say it’s a career landmark this time around. In Brief: This one’s got some ramshackle romps, some haunting ballads that plumb the depths of the soul, and some laid-back country numbers. ![]()
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