As you can see in the comments, this is something that I may not normally review. As for his pop rock, you don’t have to go any farther than “Chains of Love” on this very album to find it. And when I was talking about his “governor”, I was not talking about his style, I was talking about a period in his career when he was snorting lots of cocaine and putting out lots of music with little concern for his career or the quality of the releases, and I’ve heard Ryan say as much himself in interviews. I know I get pigeon holed as his house organ, but the simple fact is I gave his latest album ‘Ghost to a Ghost’ a much worse review than I did this one.Īnd I wasn’t necessarily criticizing Ryan Adams for playing different styles, I was simply pointing out that he has a career that is hard to define, which I think most people would agree with me on. And neither her nor I mentioned Hank3 anywhere in this article. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Preview & Purchase Tracks from Ashes & FireĪlright first, Carla was just making a good-natured joke, and seeing that she lives in New Zealand, may not be aware of the worn out nature of it. Better than a Mexico-inspired lower GI travel illness. But I can’t deny the effort is more solid than not. I’m not sure I could find the heart to argue against anyone who told me this album was brilliance, or that it was complete frap. So I guess I’ll have to continue to hate to love to hate Ryan Adams. For all the great production, this album still lacks spice, from the lack of contrast between the songs, or cutting depth or sharp wit in the lyrics. But damn if “Ashes & Fire” isn’t a great, mid-tempo song, or that “Dirty Rain” doesn’t have some great lyrics. Soft arrangements and space can be good, but songs like “Come Home” and “Rocks” captured the sleepiness of a castrated James Taylor, while “Chains of Love” made me feel like I was soaring through the clouds on the back of a silver luck dragon with its wistful poppiness. All of these beautiful elements there, but they never get flowing all in the same direction. There’s an undefinable inhibition to this album. To many people, this is what will speak to them in this music. I kept wanting it to just go, for Ryan to unleash, but he never did. It was like the beautiful, brand new car, perfect in every way, that you’re scared to take out on the road because it might get a scratch. It really drew me in, but did not hold me. The problem with this album is that it lacks mustard. Glyn’s son Ethan Johns produced Adams’ Heartbreaker and Gold in the early 2000’s. Helping Adams as producer was the famous Brit Glyn Johns, who is the second Johns to work with Ryan Adams. This might be one of the most well-produced albums I’ve ever heard. Regardless of the quality, I think this is the album Ryan Adams wanted to make, irrespective of trends.Īdams has been known to play the producer role in music, Willie Nelson’s Songbird from 2006 for example, and with this album, you can tell why. It is solidly Americana, in the true Americana mold that Ryan helped codify during the early oughts, not so much some of the current Americana crop that sounds like pandering to the NPR demographic, or some others trying to out-Guy Clark each other. And it is….in places.įirst you must understand this album is not country, and it’s not rock n’ roll. When I saw NPR had fingered Ashes & Fire for one of their ‘First Listens’, I thought hell, I’ll navigate over there and give it a sniff, and I swear, 30 seconds in I knew this album was going to be brilliant. And didn’t he marry Mandy Moore and quit music just a couple of years ago? Hell I don’t know. At some point I caught the Neil Young syndrome with him, where I like him, but absolutely can’t stand the dude at the same time. And then comes a period where he’s putting out anything and everything he a can cook up in a studio with no governor, like he’s Beck or something and can pull that kind of thing off. And then all of a sudden he’s popping his collar, frizzing his hair, and playing pop rock. His early stuff with Whiskeytown and during those formative Bloodshot Records years holds some serious Gram Parson’s-inspired country music gold. I’ve been so hot and cold on the guy over the years as he shape shifts from the whims of identity crises and style changes, it’s harder to form a solid opinion about him than it is to conjure up a firm stool after 6 weeks in interior Mexico. When I saw a new Ryan Adams album was coming down the pike, I honestly didn’t know what to think.
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