| Josh Ritter – Another New World Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Amazing song. Saw him perform it live and was intrigued; after finding a recording, I'm awestruck. I love when Josh writes maritime songs - it's fascinating, what with him being from Idaho and all. There's a clear association between this song and Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee", which is about a narrator's love for a girl named Annabel Lee. Their love is so strong that the angels grow envious, and send a wind, 'chilling and killing my Annabel Lee'. Full text here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Annabel_Lee Not only do the name and the themes correspond, the meter and the style of repetition that Josh uses evoke Poe's poetic style. The waltz count that underlies Josh's fingerpicking (ONE two three, sounds more like one-and-a-two-and-a-three-and-a in this song) is reminiscent of the trochaic rhythm (Stressed-unstressed-unstressed) in Poe's poem, and indeed in the name 'Annabel'. |
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| Josh Ritter – Horrible Qualities/Stuck to You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Great song. When I saw him in Westport, CT a couple years ago, he introduced it as the song he wrote to explain to his mother why he decided to pursue a career in music instead of neuroscience at Oberlin College. He also changed the verses a bit, improvising new lyrics, especially in the acronyms explaining the non-stick frying pan. Magical. The message I take from this song is this: While everything has a scientific explanation, none of it matters without the person you love. |
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| Josh Ritter – Hotel Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This lyric matches the one on the official website exactly, but the album version is slightly different: the first stanza says "neon No Vacancy sign", and the chorus (the highway is for lovers) is repeated once again after the last verse, with an extra "Oh, that long yellow line" thrown onto the final cadence. As for the meaning, it's a quintessential Midwestern stuck-in-one-place tragically romantic love story. Hopeful and hopeless in equal measure, brimming with regret and optimism. Oh, Josh. The narrator here longs to leave home and explore the world - "oh, it must be gorgeous there..." - but he's stuck in a job where everyone he meets is from far away. Vraiment tragique. |
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