Ritt Momney | Her and All of My Friends | Album Review

Quarter Zip

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Growing up goes hand in hand with growing away from what was once known and accepted as constant truths. In his debut album, Her and All of My Friends, 19-year-old Jack Rutter, better known as Ritt Momney, braces the divide between versions of himself to discover the person he is becoming.

Each track in the record emphasizes Rutter’s vocals through melancholy guitar, accompanying piano backings with juxtaposing autotune, and synthesizer. Opening track “I” features only gentle piano and vocals, seamlessly transitioning into the jittery synth in “Lew’s Lullaby” in which Rutter digs into the meat of the album: the push and pull of the past and the future.

Rutter’s stream of consciousness style vocals in “Command V” address his loss of friends and girlfriend as they move away, causing a severance in his perception of himself. Emphasizing the confusion in the lyrics, the track blends together acoustic guitar with autotuned vocals and synthesizer, placing listeners in a similarly thoughtful yet mournful headspace as Rutter processes his loss.

The cause of his deep loss can be found in the emotional core of the record, “(If) The Book Doesn’t Sell.” A younger, questioning Rutter discovers God and the Devil discussing mutual abandonment, leaving Rutter to abandon the Mormon faith of his childhood. In a raw moment of one note synthesizer and autotuned vocals pleading with his religious upbringing that he did not choose, he implores “Whether God given or not / Our lives are not to be controlled / Just let us choose.”

Her and All of My Friends is an overwhelmingly intimate journey into Rutter’s coming-of-age story in which he chooses his own version of himself. A triumphant debut album, Ritt Momney opens the door to the grief of growing up and away, inviting listeners inside to grieve alongside him.