Josh Ritter | Sermon on the RocksEmpty Bottle Evenings

Oct192015October 19, 2015November 1, 20152 Commentsby Bake

Josh Ritter | Sermon on the Rocks

Posted in Music

For some reason when I saw the cover of Josh Ritter’s new album Sermon on the Rocks I thought it was going to be an album covering different versions of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” and I was not only going to boycott listening but was going to kill myself in (understandable) protest. Thankfully his greaser onesie actually represents something else. What that is, I still have no idea. But let’s try to figure it out.

Ritter is an odd duck, and this album is probably the strangest. Typically the singer-songwriter mixes in his narrative intense acoustic folk songs among some uptempo rock n roll, but his last album, The Beast In Its Tracks, was a somber breakup up album that was stripped down even for Ritter’s standards. This album picks up in the…the opposite of the same place. It’s a crazy uptempo rebuttal to his latest album, eschewing sadness and softness for piano driven fun and electric guitar driven pop-rock. Alright, so there is some Billy Joel on here, but none of that Christie Brinkley shit. The closest Ritter comparisons are songs from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, particularly, “Right Moves” and “Rumors”. I personally like those songs so I’m digging this album, but if you don’t well, then, eat shit.

There is very little of his trademark minstrel quality on this album, which may disappoint some longtime listeners, but he’s too gifted to stick with one style and after his last album it’s pretty cool that he would go in an entirely different direction. Sometimes it gets a little weird when he evokes ’90s Springsteen and oddly enough Lionel Richie on “Seeing Me Around”, but shit, it must nice to get ambitious sometimes. When you’ve recorded seven albums already who wants to put out the same stuff all over again? Ritter delivers with something new and expected, but this time around the Royal City Band is present once more. Sermon on the Rocks sounds like a band having fun again, not a man exercising his demons with his acoustic confessionals. Seriously, the electric guitar on this album is the best I’ve heard on any of their albums so far (check out “The Stone” or “Henrietta, Indiana” in particular). And I don’t want to pick on The Beast In Its Tracks again, but I’ve been depressed enough lately and I haven’t broke up with anyone in 10 years. I need albums like this and Frank Turner’s latest, Positive Song for Negative People, to remind me music can be for lifting your spirits not just wallowing in your sadness.

Ritter uses all of his influences on this album to get you moving from the aforementioned Billy Joel and Springsteen to an explicit nod to Tom Petty on “Getting Ready to Get Down”, a song that actually reminds me more of Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway”. One of my favorite new tracks is actually the the clear as day tribute to Paul Simon on “Cumberland”. These influences had come out from time to time on his previous albums, but this time around he seems to just want to let all of the artists share center stage instead of deference to him and his acoustic. There’s no “Idaho” or “Otherside” on this record, but there are a lot of more accessible rock songs like “A Big Enough Sky” that should win over a fair amount of new fans. Will this all of a sudden turn Ritter into a star and pack his concerts with newcomers? Probably not. But either way I’m happy that he decided to showcase his infrequently utilized pop-rock songwriting heavily on this album. He’s pretty versatile and this album should open up a few eyes. Ears? Ah, who gives a shit. Just play the damn record.