Of Dragon And Wolves

Idaho-bred singer/songwriter Josh Ritter's V2 Records debut follows in the footsteps of 2003's Hello Starling only in instrumentation. While he retains his literate tongue and expressive voice, there is far less humor on Animal Years than on his previous two outings. Producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse) keeps Animal Years intimate but transient, like a circus train crawling through a small town on a busy Saturday afternoon. Essentially built around two startlingly affecting diatribes on the war in Iraq, Ritter utilizes the voices of Peter and Paul, as well as Laurel & Hardy, to eke some kind of explanation from both the Administration and the Creator.

Idaho-bred singer/songwriter Josh Ritter's V2 Records debut follows in the footsteps of 2003's Hello Starling only in instrumentation. While he retains his literate tongue and expressive voice, there is far less humor on Animal Years than on his previous two outings. Producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse) keeps Animal Years intimate but transient, like a circus train crawling through a small town on a busy Saturday afternoon. Essentially built around two startlingly affecting diatribes on the war in Iraq, Ritter utilizes the voices of Peter and Paul, as well as Laurel & Hardy, to eke some kind of explanation from both the Administration and the Creator.

The Italian prog artist Sophya Baccini is indeed an interesting case. Before her solo career she was in a prog metal band Presence and guested on albums by Osanna and Delirium among others. Her bilingual debut Aradia (2009) was classically influenced, dramatic prog full of mysterious atmospheres and many-sided arrangements, all crowned by her beautiful voice. It was followed by the William Blake inspired album Big Red Dragon (2013) that featured legendary guests such as Sonja Kristina (Curved Air), Christian Decamps (Ange) and Lino Vairetti (Osanna). It took ten years to get to the third album, but it was worth the wait. The group named after the debut album consists of female musicians only.