Josh Ritter

"...Josh Ritter crafts songs that are a rare gift of natural, intuitive beauty."

"His style is in the tradition of folk music and ballads - influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, among others - with an emphasis on complex imagery combined with simple lyrics."

"...reaches back to folk-rock that was invented before he was born - not just for its sound, but for its ambitions.

"Ritter is comfortable with literary and historical allusions, and is as much in love with words as music, and that really shows in his lean, evocative narratives.'

Josh Ritter's The Animal Years is the kind of breakthrough effort that will cause listeners new to the 29 year-old singer-songwriter's work to wonder where this guy has been all their lives...
-- Michael Hill

On his third album, "The Animal Years" (V2), he openly draws on Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, the Band and Simon and Garfunkel. And like them, he sets out to carry a world of ideas on a few basic chords.
--JON PARELES

"...his fourth full-length album, "The Animal Years," was inspired by his reaction to the political climate in America over the last two years."

"The Animal Years" tackles subjects ranging from love songs ("Good Man") to the war in Iraq ("Girl in the War"). According to Ritter, many of his lyrics and ideas were drawn from literary works. He used allusions from the book of Revelation and "The Divine Comedy" to form the apocalyptic "Thin Blue Flame," while "Best for the Best" takes from the letters of Mark Twain: "I realize that Illinois was more than I could stand / They say working's best 'cause poverty is hell on a man / Now I ride a lazy river through the Mississippi fan."
--Katie Hasty, N.Y., Billboard

Ritter demands attention from the stately first track, "Girl In The War," which blurs a conversation between Peter and Paul with a lament for a girlfriend in the military. He finds no easy answers for why lovers should be kept apart on earth or in heaven, but that only makes sense on an album largely about asking difficult questions.
--Onion

He embraces the topical while reaching for the timeless, resulting in an album that's firmly rooted in right now but guaranteed to resonate for years to come.
-- Michael Hill

These songs represent perhaps the most eloquent expression to date from any pop artist of the physical, emotional and spiritual consequences of the Iraqi war and the divided state of our nation. "Girl in the War" is as stark and stirring as "Born In the U.S.A.," and much more immediate. Ritter explores the deepening dread of the Middle East conflict, imagining his words as an epistle to St. Paul: "I've got a girl in the war, Paul, her eyes are like champagne/They sparkle, bubble over and in the morning all you've got is rain."
-- Michael Hill