So Runs The World Away, the new album from renowned singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, will be released May 4 on Pytheas Recordings. This is the fifth full-length recording from Ritter, who has been widely heralded by critics and fans alike. Of the Idaho-native, Paste magazine declares, "Put simply, Ritter is the most gifted interpreter of Americana, as an arranger and a lyricist, working today."
 
Recorded over 15 months at the Great North Sound Society in Maine, with additional recording at Brooklyn's Saltlands Studio, So Runs The World Away continues Ritter's longtime collaboration with producer and keyboard player Sam Kassirer. Additionally, the album features the return of Ritter's core line-up of touring bandmates: Zack Hickman, Austin Nevins and Liam Hurley.
 
Of the record, Ritter says, "I think of the songs on So Runs the World Away like pictures painted in oil on large canvasses. It's a record preoccupied with the extremes of scale, from infinitesimal particles to the nearly incomprehensible distances between the head of a pin and a nebula. Where the songs felt large to me, I wanted them to be huge, both musically and lyrically. I wanted them to feel like the steel hulls of massive ships sliding by deeply from below. Where they were small, I concentrated in on the smallest details that I could and we tried to make the music and the words work together. I love writing, and this was the most fulfilling record I've yet written."
 
"If you love music and have a device on which to play it, you should listen to Josh Ritter..." --Mary-Louise Parker in Esquire
 
"Josh Ritter has a way with metaphor. It’s one of the literary touches in his music that have
established him among the cream of the young singer-songwriter crop." - New York Times
 
"…his new record, So Runs the World Away, doesn't defy categorization so much as it creates its own." –NPR
 
“With startling detail, distinctive storytelling, compelling subject matter and astonishing
musicianship, Ritter's new album has reset the singer-songwriter bar.” –NPR
 
"The result is this quite sensational new album that not only purges the darkness, but marks the finest music he has made." - Boston Globe
 
“…mesmerizing…creating a wildly theatrical epic.” – Spin
 
“…Josh Ritter hits a beautiful stride on his sixth album, a soulful combination of conversational
folk ballads and powerful gut punches.” –Paste
 
“It is a monumental album in everything from the scope of its subject matter to its grand
instrumentation and production.” - American Songwriter
 
“The album, with an obvious masterly in strong storytelling, satisfyingly soars through ballads of melancholic symphonies and foot-tapping, jangled neo-folk…” -Venus Zine
 
“…Ritter’s breezy beats and waltzing simplicities of his fresh pop individually identify him as a
top-notch blue-collared songwriter.” -Venus Zine
 
“…conjures a world so vivid that you may feel like you've watched an epic movie after you’ve
finished listening.” -The Washington Post Express
 
“The Idaho native has perfected his talent for bringing out the poignancy in his lyrics by
matching them with just the right melodies and arrangements.” -The Washington Post Express
“…both ambitious and breathtaking.” - Philadelphia Weekly
 
“…Ritter is one of the best singer-songwriters of our generation—perhaps one of the best of all
time—and So Runs The World Away is only the latest proof.” - Seattle Weekly
 
“…demonstrates once again that he’s one of the best story craftsmen of his generation, with a
delicate but never diluted musical backing adding a sense of drama to stories of both physical
and spiritual exploration.” -The Salt Lake Tribune
 
“Ritter’s overall enterprise ideally suits his superb writing, making ‘So Runs the World Away’
rewardingly bold.” -Knoxville News Sentinel
 
“…Ritter has found new worlds to explore, and in the process elevated his art to an even higher
level.” -Pop Dose
 
“The album they created is one of the finest song cycles you’re likely to encounter this year.” -Pop Dose
“…on these 13 tracks, Ritter sounds better than ever.” -Glide Magazine.com
 
“…there are only a handful of songwriters in the country who render American life as lovingly,
as vividly and as beautifully as he does.” -The Beacon 

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