"Ryan Adams - Cold Roses"

Ryan Adams has a chronic case of "record and release every single song I come up with." I mean, the man wants to release three albums this year (that was a lot even when the Beatles first started out). The first album he's put out this year, Cold Roses, is even a double album, containing nineteen songs.

Which isn't to say this is a bad thing.

Cold Roses is the strongest album Adams has put out since he left Whiskeytown, and it's not unrelated that he's slipped back into an alt-country style for it. While not exactly a retreat, it is a movement towards a style with which he is comfortable and assured, and the songs are the better for it. Gone is the blatant experimentation for experimentation's sake that hobbled albums like Rock N Roll and Love is Hell. Instead, we have a set of vaguely country-rock songs, ranging from the high-energy "Beatiful Sorta" to the all-acoustic, mellow and meditative "Rosebud," and a bunch of well-crafted mid-tempo numbers in between. The record relies mostly on acoustic instrumentation, though the occasional pedal steel guitar or electric guitar works its way in to add flavor and dimension.

The most interesting thing about the album is its cohesion--this albums sounds like a single thing, a whole, not a bunch of random songs thrown together (as albums like Rock N Roll did). That's due in part to the fact that his backing band, the Cardinals, had full partnership in the writing of the songs. This is the work of a band, not of an individual, and that gives it a coherent sound and direction.

The record sounds assured, though there are moments when it bogs down. Many of the songs are almost throw-aways, songs of little substance that seem to blend into one another. But the standouts--tracks like the rocking "Let it Ride" or the titular "Cold Roses"--are uniformly excellent. This album is Ryan Adams not trying to be a part of the great tapestry of rock and roll history, and it finds him thus making his best claim for inclusion into that tapestry. When he doesn't try so hard, when he just makes good music, that's when he does his best work. We'll just have to see how the other proposed albums go.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Ryan Adams, "Let it Ride"