Josh Ritter | The Beast in Its Tracks
It’s Valentine’s Day. So naturally there are some depressed motherfuckers out there. And I don’t blame them. Finding love is tough, and losing it is tougher. So for Valentine’s Day I bring you Josh Ritter’s The Beast In Its Tracks.
This is a break up album. Growing up I thought break up albums were angst-y. Probably because I was full of angst. I’d probably listen to a double album of speed metal titled “She’s a bitch” on repeat if it would help my teenage self. But now people get older, and thankfully not everyone let’s it out so aggressively. This, for instance, is folky pop music, an album full of love songs. But they’re not “fall in love with me songs”, they’re, “Oh shit I fell in love with Dawn Landes and we got divorced 18 months later” songs. They sound sweet, but they sure ain’t happy. As you could imagine when you find someone you want to spend your life with…and then you don’t. That’s when you write songs about how your ex is hopeful for you to move on and find the better things you deserve. You know, the things you thought you had with her. Save you hope for yourself bitch. Apparently you can write love songs for a living and still BADLY misjudge your own love life. Fuck love, happy V-Day.
But Josh Ritter is a moderately successful singer-songwriter, he probably has girls lined up waiting for him right? Apparently so, since other more than semi-autobiographical tracks from The Beast In Its Tracks talk about having a new lover that only looks like his ex in “A Certain Light”. Uh huh. He repeats this theme in the song aptly titled “New Lover”, where after some stalling he admits he’d be just as happy with his ex being miserable and lonely instead of moving on too.. Nothing says you’re recovering well from a break up like writing songs about your rebound and taking not subtle jabs at your ex-wife for 13 songs. But hey, we’ve all been there.
There are moments of sadness and ones that touch upon good times had in the past. Because if all you did after a break up was think about the bad things that you’re done with, this shit would be easy. And you certainly wouldn’t have to write an entire album about it. But divorce sucks. And if you can write some folk-pop songs to help you through it and people actually buy it, maybe life isn’t so bad. I hear Josh Ritter actually did find a new lover not long after, and had a kid with her. Just gotta hope she wasn’t the rebound girl from these songs. Or else he’s going to have to do better than flowers today.
The Drink: The moonshine full of paint thinner from The Master. I’m no sugar-coating Josh Ritter type, are we battling a break up here or what?
Bake
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[…] last time I saw The Low Anthem live it was kind of like this. They opened in Portland, ME for Josh Ritter. He’s not exactly a rock star, but 99% of the people in the audience were there to see him. […]
[…] in his narrative intense acoustic folk songs among some uptempo rock n roll, but his last album, The Beast In Its Tracks, was a somber breakup up album that was stripped down even for Ritter’s standards. This […]