The Animal Years is Josh Ritter’s march to .400, his 30 win year, his 55 homer campaign. To belabor the baseball analogy a little bit further, it’s a journeyman’s MVP season. While his prior three releases hinted at greatness, The Animal Years swings for the fences (sorry) and delivers a perfect game (I’ll stop) bookended by the twin classics of the topical, urgent “Girl in The War” and 9 and half minute stream-of-consciousness harangue “Thin Blue Flame”, a Dylan-inspired song poem that shouldn’t work but succeeds on every level.