Wolves - Josh Ritter
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Whenever Andrew and I go on vacation, he'll dump a bunch of albums onto a few CDs, and we'll listen to them as we drive around, picking favourites. This past Canada Day weekend it was the Handsome Family, Art Brut, English soccer anthems, and Josh Ritter. I first heard Josh Ritter half-asleep after midnight in a car somewhere on the road to Cape Breton. It woke me up. Josh Ritter is cut from the same, rusty mold as Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, and is best listened to on dusty, empty roads, preferably at night or twilight. But, he holds up in the city as well.
While I'm a fan of the entire album, "The Animal Years", this song is the one I've played the most. It comes close to falling apart. Like, if his accent was a bit twangier, if the lyrics were a bit flatter, if the drums were mixed a smidge louder, it just wouldn't work - it would be cheesy. But as it is, it's perfect. The galloping drums and punchy piano are the precise backdrops for the lyrics, a kind of mystified eulogy to a relationship gone bad.
I like how the song starts off about dancing. Songs about dancing, in general, get bonus points in my book. And when he ends that part with, I was singing without knowing the words,you know exactly the feeling he is trying to evoke: a giddy, unexplainable happiness. Then there's this verse about wolves (wolves in the piano! wolves underneath the stairs!) that gives the song a darker, growlier side, and it ties everything together, saves it from being too cloying. It's (almost) as rousing as an English soccer anthem.
Whenever Andrew and I go on vacation, he'll dump a bunch of albums onto a few CDs, and we'll listen to them as we drive around, picking favourites. This past Canada Day weekend it was the Handsome Family, Art Brut, English soccer anthems, and Josh Ritter. I first heard Josh Ritter half-asleep after midnight in a car somewhere on the road to Cape Breton. It woke me up. Josh Ritter is cut from the same, rusty mold as Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, and is best listened to on dusty, empty roads, preferably at night or twilight. But, he holds up in the city as well.
While I'm a fan of the entire album, "The Animal Years", this song is the one I've played the most. It comes close to falling apart. Like, if his accent was a bit twangier, if the lyrics were a bit flatter, if the drums were mixed a smidge louder, it just wouldn't work - it would be cheesy. But as it is, it's perfect. The galloping drums and punchy piano are the precise backdrops for the lyrics, a kind of mystified eulogy to a relationship gone bad.
I like how the song starts off about dancing. Songs about dancing, in general, get bonus points in my book. And when he ends that part with, I was singing without knowing the words,you know exactly the feeling he is trying to evoke: a giddy, unexplainable happiness. Then there's this verse about wolves (wolves in the piano! wolves underneath the stairs!) that gives the song a darker, growlier side, and it ties everything together, saves it from being too cloying. It's (almost) as rousing as an English soccer anthem.
posted by terki at 10:48 AM
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