If ever there was such a thing as a classic album, then this is it.
If ever there was such a thing as a classic album, then this is it.
Incendiary didn’t publish an end of the year review for 2006. Frankly, we couldn’t be bothered. We did think about it, for a while, but decided against it. However, if we had have taken the time to sit down and discuss what we felt was the ‘Best album of 2006’ there could only be one contender, and that’s Josh Ritter’s The Animal Years.
Of course, I know that a vast amount of you may disagree with that. That’s the problem with Top Ten lists, they’re just ripe for a backlash. The thing is, I know how many of you went out and bought the latest Snow Patrol album, I’ve seen the figures. I’ve also seen how many of you went out and bought the last album by The Killers and, frankly, I’m disappointed in you. Ok now, hands up, how many of you bought Josh Ritter’s The Animal Years?
That’s what I thought.
The Animal Years is Josh Ritter’s third album. His first two aren’t half bad either, but this is something else. He wrote the songs on the road and it shows. The Animal Years is a very transient album. It’s almost like a train journey, which pulls out of the station with the opening track, Girl in The War and then picks up speed over the next few songs. Eventually it stops for a rest, around Idaho, track 5, before picking up and continuing on.
The thing that I absolutely love about this album is that it paints a complete picture and yet still remains vague and open to interpretation at the same time. Yes, I know that that sounds like I’m contradicting myself, but bear with me.
The album is like a piece of American folklore. Just mix the visual beauty and roughness of John Ford’s Western movies with the romantic view of America that Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor created and you’ll be able to picture the kind of atmosphere this album creates. It’s beautiful and welcoming, from start to finish.
Musically, this is astonishing. There isn’t a single note out of place, every single sound feels like it belongs and, above all, feels absolutely perfect in its place. That’s not to say that this sounds completely new and fresh, on the contrary, it feels old and well worn. It feels traditional. But lyrically, that’s where this album takes off.
What I love about the way Josh Ritter writes is that, although each of his songs are meticulously crafted and superbly structured as far as the music goes, he allows himself a little room to experiment with his lyrics. This allows him to be a little playful and just incorporate a phrase that may be completely unrelated to the narrative of the song, but somehow it just feels right. If it sounds good, he just goes with it, confident that the strength of the music will hold it together. What this does is throw the meaning of the song open to interpretation and that makes them all the more mysterious and enigmatic for it.
He writes in a very visual style and that’s absolutely fascinating for a listener, because it stimulates your imagination. You may not know what every single line means, and I seriously doubt if Josh himself does, but that really doesn’t matter. Girl In The War is a pretty straightforward song, but it contains the line, "Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire," and I have absolutely no idea what he means by that, but I love it anyway. In Monster Ballads, which may well be the best song I’ve heard in the last decade, he sings, "Out in the desert now and feeling lost. The bonnet wears a wire albatross," and if you can tell me what that means I’ll give you a medal.
The Animal Years didn’t get our vote for album of the year simply because it’s good. It didn’t get our album of the year simply because it has a few memorable tunes. It got our vote for the best album of 2006 because it is absolutely everything you look for in an album. It’s a true work of art. The Animal Years is the sound of a guy fulfilling his potential and how rare is that nowadays? How many bands/artists out there nowadays can you say have released a third album that is head and shoulders above anything else they’ve released previously? Not many. The Animal Years is the sound of a guy pushing himself as hard as he can. It’s the sound of a guy completely focused, totally charged and, unbelievably, delivering the goods on all fronts.
Monster Ballads, as I mentioned before, may be the best song I’ve heard in the past ten years, but every single song on here is worth shouting from the rooftops about. Lillian, Egypt is so infectious it’ll have you singing along before the first chorus ends. Wolves and Good Man are incredibly uplifting and reminiscent of the songs Bruce Springsteen is really good at writing. But where Springsteen ruins his work by throwing the whole E-Street band at them, Ritter holds back a little, keeping things simple and all the better for it. Thin Blue Flame, however, may well be Ritter’s crowning achievement. It’s by no means my favourite song on the album but it fills me with joy to hear a guy trying something so big and so ambitious and managing to make it work.
It’s held together with a scratchy, metallic guitar sound and some bold, solid piano work but once again it is the imagery in the lyrics that makes the song transcend into something truly spectacular.
Verse 1: "A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon’s light"
Verse 2: "I became a thin blue wire. That held the world above the fire."
Verse 3: "Borders soft with refugees. Streets a swimming with amputees."
Verse 4: "In darkness he looks for the light that has died. But you need faith for the same reasons that it’s so hard to find."
Verse 5: "The future descending like a bright chandelier."
Verse 6: "The lake was a diamond in the valley’s hand."
Thin Blue Flame could, so very easily, have been a rambling, pretentious mess (It contains references to Caesar and The Prince of Denmark’s Father, for crying out loud!) but the fact that it isn’t is what is so amazing about it. It lasts for more than nine and a half minutes and yet it never, ever drags. It’s an incredible song, from an incredible album.
I’ve listened to The Animal Years every single day for almost a full year now and it has never, ever failed to entertain me. If ever there was such a thing as a classic album, then this is it. Treat your heart and imagination with something they deserve. Spend some time with The Animal Years. You will not regret it.
Words : Damian Leslie