by Josh Ritter · 2024
The song “Change of Time” by Josh Ritter is about navigating the emotional turbulence of change and loss, using dreamlike imagery of swimming through storms and memories to convey the struggle and hope of moving forward through life’s uncertain and shifting tides.
This song has been Shazamed over 267,980 times. As of this writing, Change of Time is ranked 177
Change of Time’ by Josh Ritter is a song about dreams, memories, and how time changes everything. We’re going to talk about what the song means and why it feels so special when we listen to it. ⬇️
From the very first line, the song feels like floating on a dark, endless ocean—there’s a sense of drifting, searching, even a little bit of fear. Ritter’s gentle voice and poetic words create a mood that’s both mysterious and deeply nostalgic.
⏳ The chorus—repeating “Time, love… It’s only a change of time”—is hypnotic, almost like a mantra we can’t shake off. It’s as if he’s reminding us (and maybe himself) that all the storms, heartbreaks, and transformations are simply the tides of life shifting—painful, yes, but inevitable. We hear the ache, the hope, and the resignation tangled together, all swirling in that simple phrase: it’s only a change of time.
⚓ In the verses, Ritter paints vivid pictures: swimming among lost drifters, tasting salt water, dragging an anchor of memory through stormy seas. “The sails of memory rip open in silence”—what a line!—captures how our past can suddenly overwhelm us, while “I closed my eyes, I kept on swimming” hints at persistence, at pushing forward even when the world feels unfamiliar or broken.
There’s a bittersweet beauty when he wakes from the dream and sees a loved one, describing their shoulder blade and spine as shorelines in the moonlight—a new world to explore, something safe and miraculous after all that darkness. Even in the chaos, there’s comfort to be found in connection, in the small, luminous details that tether us to hope.
What Ritter gives us, through longing and lyricism, is the quiet revelation that while time and love are forever changing, we survive by letting the waves carry us—by keeping on swimming, even when we’re not sure where we’ll wash up.
Writer(s) of Change of Time:
