"Don't let me into this year with an empty heart"

Just a quick GOOD SONG post for New Year's Eve:

Empty Hearts by Josh Ritter. ----------> Click on the song, and then click on the link that says "Play Song from MySpace Music." (I'd give you a link to the song on regular ol' YouTube, but they only have acoustic/live versions, which are good but don't give you the full energy of the song.)

It's from Josh Ritter's album "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter," which is a fantastic album. I know it's another Josh Ritter post, but I don't care, it's perfect for New Year's Eve. 

Full heart + dog on chest = recipe for good year

And remember, don't let yourself into this year with an empty heart.

See you in 2011!

Over and out,
Anna

Best of 2010

My 11.5 favoritest albums from 2010, in no particular order...

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
GOOD SONG: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Sufjan Stevens- Age of Adz
GOOD SONG: Get Real Get Right

Florence + the Machine- Lungs
GOOD SONG: Hurricane Drunk

Josh Ritter- So Runs The World Away
GODO SONG: The Curse

LCD Soundsystem- This Is Happening
GOOD SONG: I Can Change

Deer Tick- The Black Dirt Sessions
GOOD SONG: Mange

Justin Townes Earle- Harlem River Blues
GOOD SONG: One More Night in Brooklyn

Delta Spirit- History From Below
GOOD SONG: Salt in the Wound

The National- High Violet
GOOD SONG: Bloodbuzz Ohio

The Black Keys- Brothers
GOOD SONG: Ten Cent Pistol

Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt

GOOD SONG: King of Spain

(note: his EP "Sometimes the Blues Is Just a Passing Bird" is also awesome and gets an honorary mention on this list. GOOD SONG: Thrown Right At Me)

What were YOUR favoritest? What do you think I left out? What would you not have included?

Over and out,
Anna

P.S. Merry Christmas (it's still Christmas time for another 10 days) and Happy New Year!

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?"