So Runs the World Away

( 6 )

Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - James Christopher Monger
So Runs the World Away, the fifth studio album from bookish, Idaho-born troubadour Josh Ritter, unfolds like a Flannery O'Connor, Jim Jarmusch, and Mark Twain road trip. Equally steeped in Southern and Midwest Gothic Americana, the son of a pair of neuroscientists has crafted his most unique collection of songs to date, borrowing characters from mythology, literature, and world history and letting them run wild in the increasingly adventurous, neo-traditional folk style that his become his forte over the last decade. The elegiac, slow-burn opener "'Change of Time'" sets the stage, lamenting 'battered hulls and broken hardships/leviathan and lonely' before ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - James Christopher Monger
So Runs the World Away, the fifth studio album from bookish, Idaho-born troubadour Josh Ritter, unfolds like a Flannery O'Connor, Jim Jarmusch, and Mark Twain road trip. Equally steeped in Southern and Midwest Gothic Americana, the son of a pair of neuroscientists has crafted his most unique collection of songs to date, borrowing characters from mythology, literature, and world history and letting them run wild in the increasingly adventurous, neo-traditional folk style that his become his forte over the last decade. The elegiac, slow-burn opener "'Change of Time'" sets the stage, lamenting 'battered hulls and broken hardships/leviathan and lonely' before visiting a 1000-year-old Egyptian pharaoh on the deck of a steamship on his way to New York in "'Curses.'" The voyage continues by train on "'Southern Pacifica,'" descends into bluesy, Tom Waits-ian solipsism on "'Rattling Locks,'" and culminates in So Runs the World Away's brilliant mid-album centerpiece, "Folk Bloodbath," which pits some of the murder ballad's biggest names (Louis Collins, Delia, and Stagger Lee) against each other with predictable results. Standout cuts in the second half include the verdant, bouncy "'Lark,'" the stoic, John Jacob Niles-inspired "'See How Man Was Made,'" and the spirited, quasi-spiritual/science rocker "'Orbital,'" resulting in a typically fine batch of new folk standards and a high-water mark for an artist already used to paddling around on oceans too deep and vast for modern cartography.
National Public Radio
Ritter's category lacks a name, but it has a sound, a vision, and a sense of poetic determination that puts So Runs the World Away on a level reserved for records such as Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind, Tom Waits' Rain Dogs, and Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. High praise, to be sure.
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  • Watch Josh Ritter discuss So Runs the World Away
    Watch Josh Ritter discuss So Runs the World Away  

Product Details

  • Release Date: 5/4/2010
  • Label: Pytheas Recordings
  • UPC: 634457524620
  • Catalog Number: 1
  • Sales rank: 541

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Curtains (0:56)
  2. 2 Change of Time (4:07)
  3. 3 The Curse (5:00)
  4. 4 Southern Pacifica (4:22)
  5. 5 Rattling Locks (4:28)
  6. 6 Folk Bloodbath (5:19)
  7. 7 Lark (3:05)
  8. 8 Lantern (5:18)
  9. 9 The Remnant (4:02)
  10. 10 See How Man Was Made (3:27)
  11. 11 Another New World (7:39)
  12. 12 Orbital (3:32)
  13. 13 Long Shadows (2:24)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Josh Ritter Primary Artist, Acoustic Guitar, Violin, Electric Guitar, Vocals, Guitar (Nylon String)
Dawn Landes Vocals
Liam Hurley Percussion, Drums
Sam Kassirer Organ, Synthesizer, Percussion, Piano, Sampling, Mellotron, Vibes, farfisa organ, fender rhodes, Wurlitzer
Zack Hickman Organ, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Electric Bass, Bass Clarinet, Euphonium, Electric Guitar, Vibes, Omnichord, Upright Bass, Hi String
Jesse Neuman Trumpet, electronics
Rob Jost French Horn
Allie Moss Vocals
Austin Nevins Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Percussion, Glockenspiel, Electric Guitar, E-bow, Lap Steel Guitar, Guitar (Baritone), Baritone Ukulele
Tony Barba Flute, Tenor Saxophone
Technical Credits
Mississippi John Hurt Composer
Jeff Lipton Mastering
Josh Ritter Composer
Traditional Composer
Jim Smith Engineer
Sam Kassirer Producer, Engineer
Brandon Eggleston Engineer
Matthew Fleming Artwork
Austin Nevins Engineer
Dan Cardinal Engineer
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 5
( 6 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(5)

4 Star

(1)

3 Star

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2 Star

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1 Star

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Sort by: Showing all of 6 Customer Reviews

  • Posted October 1, 2010

    What I have been longing for

    Musical poetry at it's ultimate. I first heard Josh Ritter on NPR singing Change of Time" and "The Curse" and knew immediately this cd would be my next purchase. The word "genius" is used too freely, but in my opinion it is deserved for Josh Ritter.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 12, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 1, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 24, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 6, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

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    Posted December 25, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 6 Customer Reviews