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Tune in to the XPN Morning Show each Monday to hear, Host, Mike Vasilikos, review XPN's Featured Album of the Week. This week's album is....

Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (V2)

BUY THIS CD: Animal Years

The Animal Years is JOSH RITTER's coming of age album. The 29 year old Idaho native has been troubadour-ing it for several years now, and all of his experience and songwriting know-how have been brought together on this new release.

Produced by BRIAN DECK - who has also worked with IRON & WINE and MODEST MOUSE - The Animal Years plays out like a strange concept album. It's about the big and the small, and how the mundane things create and inform the significant. It's also about America... almost like a history lesson of the future. Recorded at Bear Creek Studios outside of Seattle, the rustic setting definitely played a huge part in the way this new album sounds. Ritter has always been able to convey confidence in his songwriting without having it sound heavy-handed, and he's really hit his stride now. Tunes like "Wolves", "Monster Ballads" and "Idaho" are really remarkable. They all point towards the fact that Ritter is undeniably talented.

Every town's got hundreds of singer/songwriters with guitars, and something like The Animal Years is what they all aspire to create.

Written by Dan Reed

Click here to see the complete list of WXPN Featured Albums.