Explorers, Lovers, and Poets

So Josh Ritter is amazing, basically.

I first heard him on his second album entitled the Golden Age of Radio, which was fantastic. He just released his sixth studio album, entitled So Runs the World Away (catch that quote? Hamlet Act II, Scene III, line 208). The album is darker and moodier than his previous work, with real glimpses of beauty. 

Not a morning person, Josh?

So, the GOOD SONG for today is my favorite off the album (which is saying a lot), a song called Another New World.  

Give it a listen-- it's long, but incredibly moving. It's a love song. It's an elegy. It's a ballad. It's a cautionary tale. It's a... a.... amazing.

It's about an explorer who goes off the try to discover another new world at the North Pole in his beloved ship the Annabel Lee. Unfortunately, things go a bit awry for the poor old explorer. 

Here are the lyrics, in case you're interested...  Another New World Lyrics

I think my favorite line is:

"So I said, "All I've got are my guts and my God,"

 then I paused, "and the Annabel Lee.' "


In case you haven't guessed by now, the song is loosely inspired by the poem "Annabel Lee" by Poe. They are very different story lines, but both are about losing what you love the most. 

A mourning person.

Apparently, Ritter has said in an interview that, "The Edgar Allan Poe poem wasn't in my head initially, but I must've had an experience with it a long time ago, because it emerged from the bottom of my brain." Yeah, Poe's works tend to lurk in our brains for a long time. Well, they do for me at least.


BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: Josh Ritter!

If you like this song, you might also check out:

The Decemberists

The Frames

Langhorne Slim

Bob Dylan

Jakob Dylan

Leonard Cohen

Over and out,
Anna


P.S. A quote of Josh's from a recent interview struck me as funny and relating to an earlier post of mine. He is talking about religion here, and how people interpret the Gospels, FYI.
"But maybe it’s really holding a mirror up to yourself, and how you interpret something tells you a lot about yourself. If you think A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor is funny, are you being honest with yourself, or are you just a mean person?"