Josh Ritter stopped by Canada’s CBC Radio this week for an interview with Q host Jian Ghomeshi and a performance of two tunes off his new album, The Beast In Its Tracks. We’ve known at least one cut is a candid reflection on his rise from post-divorce heartbreak since the single “New Lover” arrived in December, but now “Hopeful” and “The Appleblossom Rag” find Ritter following that theme deeper into the set. “I wanted to write a really vindictive record, when I first started, because I feel like deep down I like to think I’m a mean guy,” he half-joked to an audience last week before playing the latter track. “A lot of these songs that I thought were mean sometimes just came out as sad… and sometimes they came out as happy.” That quote only hints at the wide swath of emotions coursing through the LP, his most autobiographical work yet and the best I’ve heard since The Animal Years. The album is due out March 5th. Watch Ritter sing a blunt narrative armed with a memorable hook on “Hopeful” below along with another breakup tune, “The Appleblossom Rag.”
“Hopeful”
“The Appleblossom Rag”