''Fever Breaks'' is the tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American singer-songwriter

Josh Ritter Josh Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2006, he was named one of ...

. The album was released on April 26, 2019, by Pytheas Recordings.

Composition

Ritter tapped American singer-songwriter

Jason Isbell Michael Jason Isbell (; born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is known for his solo career, his work with the band The 400 Unit, and as a member of Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007. Isbell h ...

to produce ''Fever Breaks,'' as well as Isbell's band The 400 Unit on instrumental support. Isbell's wife and collaborator

Amanda Shires Amanda Rose Shires (born March 5, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and fiddle player. Shires has released seven solo albums starting in 2005, her most recent being '' Take It Like a Man'' in 2022. In 2019, she founded a country music super ...

also provided input on the album process. Ritter, who previously avoided writing songs about the political climate, said, "I thought I could turn my face away and write love songs, but all I could see was the world in flames."

Release

On January 29, 2019, Ritter announced that his tenth album, ''Fever Breaks'' would be released on April 26 via Pytheas. Accompanying the album announcement was the first single release, "Old Black Magic."

Critical reception

''Fever Breaks'' was released to a generally positive critical reception.

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

assigned the album an average score of 75, indicating "generally favorable reviews." ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', which rated the album three and a half stars out of five, said that, while the album "blazes no new emotional or musical ground," it "feels like a vital career summation, a survey course sampler in a word-swilling artist's narrative gifts and endearing empathy."

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, similarly, praised the way in which Ritter "tweaks and further reinvigorates a sound and songwriting approach that's lost none of its vitality or urgency in 20 years." Comparisons were drawn to

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

on tracks "The Torch Committee," "Old Black Magic," and "Ground Don't Want Me," while "Losing Battles" bore comparisons to

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by wh ...

. Many reviews praised Isbell's production. ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' said that Isbell and his band give "Ritter's material a whole lot of muscle and bite in places," while ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', giving the album three stars out of five, noted that Isbell contributed to "a tougher framework around this latest batch of Ritter's songs." James Christopher Monger of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

said that the 400 Unit provided "soaring harmonies and some truly emotive violin work," which added "considerable sonic heft to the proceedings."

Track listing

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Josh Ritter albums