Album Review: Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away

This album has taken the long way around to reach these Australian shores. Released in 2010 in the UK and Ireland, So Runs The World Away showcases Josh Ritter's best songwriting to date and reinforces his already established support across Europe and the US. This special Australia and New Zealand release comes with an additional CD, a brand new six-song EP, with Ritter's latest musical powers.

So Runs The World Away starts strong and consistently improves, unravelling stunning lyrics, guitar riffs and melodies. The Curse, the focal piece of the whole album, is a beautiful story about a long malignant love affair between a mummy and an archaeologist and creates an explorative theme throughout the other songs. As Ritter sat down and created this story behind the tune, the characters developed and a novel was eventually created entitled Bright's Passage.

This is a sensational album that is quite possibly his finest yet. A criticism of sorts is Ritter's incessant need to experiment with his abilities and attempt to fix elements of his music that were really never broken in the first place. His experimentation with percussion sees his voice dip out of its trademark lilt and get somewhat lost in Rattling Locks and The Remnant.

Ritter is a gifted musician with a soft addictive voice complemented by the gorgeous way that he walks his fret-board. The listener is always drawn into each song and left hanging on every lyric. The fact that this troubadour is also a very talented writer means that shy Ritter should be an unstoppable force with which to be reckoned.