2. Ryan Adams "Gold" and Ryan Adams and the Cardinals "Follow the Lights EP"

So with Ryan Adams I decided to write up the two albums of his that I own in one go. This probably wont be the trend with other artists who take up 8-15 albums in my collection, so don't expect a 20,000 word write up on the Dylan albums of my collection. But with Ryan Adams, i only have two, and they contrast in such a way that I feel like it would be a disservice to my loyal (non-existant) readers to not post about them both.





"Gold" is the album that came out in 2001 and made everyone who is into such things as "music" or more to the point "good music" aware of Ryan Adams. He was supposed to be the next big thing, a moniker that is probably only a little less jinxing than.....well, it might be the worst thing you can be labeled. Because of this, the pressure was retardedly high on Adams to produce, and from what I gather he ain't exactly stable as a rocking chair. in fact, I gather he can be bat-shit crazy, but that is neither here nor there. What "Gold" showed was a talented songwriter who had a pretty solid grasp of his craft, and who could make an albums worth of decent material. But isn't that really what it was? An album of decent songs, well written, well performed, but ultimately not earth-shattering. Adams' "Gold" is a solid album, and has a few great tracks, like the opener "New York, New York" (although there is a saxophone solo, which is one of my least favorite things in music, period, unless done well) and the mid-album "Wildflowers." But its not an earth shattering record. I suspect when it came out, at the height of the Boy-Band, Brittany Spears era, it definitely felt like a breath of fresh air, but I definitely think it got over hyped, which probably explains the cooling off of the critical boner the music world had for Adams, and has relegated his newer work to receiving more cagey praise than full-blown adoration. Which is unfortunate, because....................





Ryan Adams and the Cardinals which is Adams' latest incarnation is a phenomenal group. They make the music I think all those people who said "next great thing" were thinking Adams was/was going to make. Because its solid. I mean to get his full length album with the Cardinals (whatever its called) but the "Follow the Lights" EP is a worthy purchase. The songs are country-fried in a way that isn't obnoxious, like, say, New Country. They aren't country, they aren't country-rock, they are good songs that happen to incorporate elements of those two genres. The opening "Follow the Lights" is a good example of this, as is the more rock sounding "This is it." No saxophones or bongo's, just solid tracks. I think this new Adams, with the Cardinals is making the music everyone wanted him to, but that he just didn't. he was trying to hard to be alt-country, or smart-pop or some other label, instead of just doing what he does best, which is writing songs.





So Adams for me is a couple of things. A solid song writer who may have been over hyped, and a great songwriter who may be cursed with lower expectations because the ones originally had for him were so high. I think no matter how his albums are received for the rest of his career, he's going to live up t the early potential, and either way, his music will be interesting. Hopefully interesting in a good way. Not a having the guy from Counting Crows singing back-up vocals way. That's just un-necessary.