Review: Josh Ritter’s ‘Fever Breaks’ is especially engaging

Josh Ritter, “Fever Breaks” Josh Ritter’s “Fever Breaks” is a work of stacked marvels, the result of an auspicious collaboration with Jason Isbell — who also produced — and his band, the 400 Unit. It is followed by “Old Black Magic,” where piles of guitars help illustrate the blinding, confused environment — “And I can’t see the lighthouse/And the lighthouse can’t scream.” An unrelenting acoustic guitar underscores the intensity of “On the Water,” which urges its target to make their long-distance relationship an intimate one, while the thirsting “I Still Love You ” recalls an old flame who is far from extinguished in his heart. So “All Some Kind of Dream” shrewdly wraps its political message in a graceful, acoustic arrangement, calling for compassion and appealing to the best in us in “darker days than any others I’ve seen.” Horrifying in its description of a bureaucratic dystopia, “The Torch Committee” is a nightmare song that feels all too possible, while “Losing Battles” kicks off like The Grays’ “Very Best Years” but quickly reveals its Neil Young & Crazy Horse fierceness. There have been plenty of highlights in Ritter’s nearly 20-year recording career but it’s the intensity of the music and imagery that makes “Fever Breaks” an especially engaging outing.