This is “The Animal Years”: folky, affecting and
simple, but with all the individual pieces merging together to form
something greater, something better. It does not pretend to be
groundbreaking in style, but instead focuses on reinforcing the
groundwork of folk music with its own personality.
First and foremost is a penchant for insightful lyrics, and in a
genre overflowing with desperate and empty rhymes, Ritter proves
himself a poet.
“A Good Man” is his ode to the woman he forgot to
call one night in a lighthearted metaphorical love story.
“Idaho” is his haiku, with its everyday elegance
captured in brevity.
And “Thin Blue Flame,” clocking in at just under 10
minutes, is his epic. “If God’s up there he’s in
a cold dark room / The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons /
He bent down and made the world in seven days / And ever since
he’s been walking away,” he sings roughly while
narrating a disheartening but ultimately hopeful view of the world
from heaven.
While Ritter’s lyrics and voice are a central appeal to
his music, he aims to illuminate more than just his own role in
this album. Pulling his band to an equal footing as his own,
“The Animal Years” emphasizes the interplay between
each member in nearly every track. “Lillian Egypt,” for
example, builds to a jaunty piano-driven jam, working off a
simplicity that makes you want to grab whatever musical instrument
you can and start playing along and become part of the music.
Inviting and inspiring, musically and otherwise, there is a
greatness growing within Ritter’s music that comes to life on
“The Animal Years.”