All's Fair In Love and Post-Apocalyptic War
All's fair in love and post-apocalyptic war, and all genres of American music are available for brilliant plunder. Josh Ritter has created a country-folk-rock record that is fun, clever and unabashedly American, but he has also somehow managed to avoid most of the cheesy pop mentalities prevalent in modern country music.
References range from the cold war and WWIII, to the American war of Independence, not to mention the ethos of the Wild West that lurks everywhere in his music. From Florence of Calamity to Joan of Arc.
Love songs set in war zones are hardly a new idea, but the record is also raucously uplifting enough to outlast contemporary politics, leaving us with an ageless piece whose subject matter is possibly the most permanent topic of all: love and war.