Album Review: Josh Ritter, ‘I Believe in You, My Honeydew’

As with all of his songs, Josh Ritter looks deeply into the human condition and names our despair, our shortcomings, our hopes, and our love. On I Believe in You, My Honeydew, his eleventh album, he works his lyrical magic once again as he traverses diverse musical landscapes in search of the words that will embody moments marked by the ravages and the redemption of life.

Soaring lap steel riffs flow beneath the ethereal gospel-inflected choruses on the opening track “You Won’t Dig My Grave,” a defiant anthem that stakes a claim, declaring the singer’s refusal to be buried by whatever vitriol people throw his way. He testifies that he has “been up to the Mountain/You’ve have never been that brave,” a testimony to embracing the light as it turns away darkness. The title track—“Honeydew (No Light)”—shuffles along with a swampy New Orleans voodoo vibe as it unspools a tale of darkness and the light of hope that flickers within it. The circling fingerpicking of “Truth is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding)”—which sonically resembles Townes Van Zandt—conveys the introspective musings of a lover pondering the expansive nature of both the universe and their relationship. The down-to-the-bone rocker “Kudzu Vines” captures the claustrophobic nature of the green plant that chokes the life out of all it covers, though the towering chorus and soaring instrumental bridge mimic the escape to freedom from such constraints. The breezy “I’m Listening” is an ode to attentiveness in all aspects of life, but especially for songwriters as they listen for those verses and choruses and notes that come to them across the airwaves. The album closes with “The Throne,” a resplendent hymn that opens like a dirge but climbs soulfully into the stratosphere with horns and searing lead guitar runs, reminding us that no matter how weary we are from life’s many challenges there is a respite that honors our struggles (“there is a throne for you”).

I Believe in You, My Honeydew showcases Josh Ritter’s lyrical ingenuity and his ability to set ballads of weariness and despair into uplifting musical settings that inspire hope.

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I Believe in You, My Honeydew is available HERE.

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