Yeah this is really good. I've been listening quite a lot and I'm still not sure if there's any 10 out of 10 songs on here that would ever rank up there with his best but there's a ton of solid tunes to add to his arsenal. I'm loving "Feels Like Lightning", "Myrna Loy", "When Will I Be Changed", and "Cry Softly."
I've always thought of him as an incredible songwriter but I've only heard a handful of songs. Which album should I start with?
The Animal Years for sure, it’s one of the best albums ever made in my opinion. I also love The Historical Conquests, all his other stuff is great too, but I consider it a step below those two.
The Animal Years and Sermon on the Rocks are his two best, in my opinion, and are two very different sides of his sound. I'd probably give the latter the edge as my favorite album he's made.
Definitely give The Temptation of Adam a listen, it’s probably my favorite Ritter song and is written in a similar way as The Curse.
"Thin Blue Flame" and "Girl in the War" are probably my favorite Ritter songs. Those and "Homecoming."
His acoustic version of “Come and Find Me” from the Golden Age re-release is so good. Wish that version was up on Spotify.
I love pretty much all of Josh Ritter's work. All of the songs people have listed are incredible, but I think I have to agree with jdr2187 - I think "The Temptation of Adam" might be my absolute favorite. I think the album I've listened to the most of his is So Runs The World Away, but Sermon On The Rocks has been giving it a big run for it's money since it came out. These two coming together is such an incredible combination of talents. I am so damn excited for this.
"Temptation" and "Kathleen" are two of the greatest songs ever written. For me, Historical Conquests and Animal Years are both in the top 10 of the last decade.
Yeah I saw them on that tour in Red Bank, NJ. Great. Also, Josh played a pretty awesome new song at XPNFest this year. You should be able to hear it here at like 36 minutes: XPN Media Player
Damn. I would have loved to have seen this. This new song is fantastic. I gotta throw "Thin Blue Flame" out there too as a good song for someone unfamiliar with Josh Ritter to check out to see what he's about.
My only complaint was that most of Josh's set was songs from Gathering, which was still a year away at this point. I would have preferred to hear him play a set of stuff I knew, especially the Sermon on the Rocks songs.