Josh Ritter - Spectral Lines

Released28th April 2023

Josh Ritter has been thinking a lot about space exploration. It has nothing to do with his spellbinding new album, Spectral Lines, except that in a way, it really does. The Voyager spacecraft went up in 77 and now its out there in a place that no ones ever been before, and its sending back all these messages, Ritter says. I feel like songs do that in their own little way. Theyre probes: they go out into the world, and sometimes you hear stories back from them, but really, they go off on their own.

Ritter, too, is sending back messages, in the form of 10 new songs that are atmospheric and impressionistic. Like the recently launched Webb Telescope, or Voyager all those years ago, hes looking for signs of life, reaching for a sense of commonality, something that feels universal in this infinite universe. Spectral Lines, his 11th album, finds those shared experiences in songs that push beyond the bounds of Ritters previ