I mentioned my love/hate relationship with Ryan Adams to a friend the other night, and believe I promised to write a quick introduction to his work. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, we’d had a few drinks, but I thought it’d be an interesting post nonetheless.
Here’s the short version: Ryan Adams is totally frustrating. His output is wildly uneven, he can’t self-edit, he sometimes writes totally derivative material, he never seems to learn from his mistakes, and he put on one of the worst live shows I’ve ever been to. But then he’ll write something completely beautiful - some gorgeous, broken-hearted country ballad, and then all is forgiven, and I listen to him obsessively for weeks.
If you want to get into him, I’d recommend checking out Gold as a broad overview of the kind of stuff he does, but Heartbreaker and Cold Roses are both much stronger albums.
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Now here’s the long version, album by album:
Whiskeytown: Pneumonia
This album was recorded before, but released after Adams’ first solo album, Heartbreaker. Whiskeytown usually played fairly straight-up country-rock, but Pneumonia is much more atmospheric - less distortion, more distinct voices, sparser arrangements. The album foreshadows a lot of Adams’ softer solo work, and usually eclipses it. Ryan is almost always better when he has good collaborators, and in this case, Caitlin Cary, Mike Daly, and Ethan Johns (for the most part) add all sorts of great, subtle parts to the arrangements.
This album also has the line that sums up Adams’ “asshole” character the best - “Don’t wanna know why, you like me, I don’t care”.
Standout Tracks: “Don’t Wanna Know Why”, “Reasons To Lie”, “Under Your Breath”
Heartbreaker (2000)
The first solo record, and the one the myth of Adams the tragic romantic is built on. This time his collaborators are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, which is basically cheating if you want to make a great album. The album is almost completely made up of sad, heart-broken songs of love and despair. It’s a breakup album, and all the songs seem to be coming from the period where the pain is still fresh. There’s no trace of looking back fondly, or moving on, just “why do they leave on the day you want them the most?”.
Standout Tracks: “My Winding Wheel”, “Come Pick Me Up”, “To Be The One”
Gold (2001)
This is the swing-for-the-fences album, the one meant to make Adams a star. Big melodies, huge choruses, great songwriting, all-star collaborators, etc. It’s a great driving album, where Heartbreaker was an album to sit down and listen to. There’s some great swagger in a lot of the songs, as if he’s not really hurt by any of these girls, as long as he gets to play guitar and sing about it. Probably the easiest entry-point if you only wanted to listen to one Ryan Adams record.
Standout Tracks: “Somehow, Someday”, “Answering Bell”, “Harder Now That It’s Over”
Here’s the short version: Ryan Adams is totally frustrating. His output is wildly uneven, he can’t self-edit, he sometimes writes totally derivative material, he never seems to learn from his mistakes, and he put on one of the worst live shows I’ve ever been to. But then he’ll write something completely beautiful - some gorgeous, broken-hearted country ballad, and then all is forgiven, and I listen to him obsessively for weeks.
If you want to get into him, I’d recommend checking out Gold as a broad overview of the kind of stuff he does, but Heartbreaker and Cold Roses are both much stronger albums.
--
Now here’s the long version, album by album:
Whiskeytown: Pneumonia
This album was recorded before, but released after Adams’ first solo album, Heartbreaker. Whiskeytown usually played fairly straight-up country-rock, but Pneumonia is much more atmospheric - less distortion, more distinct voices, sparser arrangements. The album foreshadows a lot of Adams’ softer solo work, and usually eclipses it. Ryan is almost always better when he has good collaborators, and in this case, Caitlin Cary, Mike Daly, and Ethan Johns (for the most part) add all sorts of great, subtle parts to the arrangements.
This album also has the line that sums up Adams’ “asshole” character the best - “Don’t wanna know why, you like me, I don’t care”.
Standout Tracks: “Don’t Wanna Know Why”, “Reasons To Lie”, “Under Your Breath”
Heartbreaker (2000)
The first solo record, and the one the myth of Adams the tragic romantic is built on. This time his collaborators are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, which is basically cheating if you want to make a great album. The album is almost completely made up of sad, heart-broken songs of love and despair. It’s a breakup album, and all the songs seem to be coming from the period where the pain is still fresh. There’s no trace of looking back fondly, or moving on, just “why do they leave on the day you want them the most?”.
Standout Tracks: “My Winding Wheel”, “Come Pick Me Up”, “To Be The One”
Gold (2001)
This is the swing-for-the-fences album, the one meant to make Adams a star. Big melodies, huge choruses, great songwriting, all-star collaborators, etc. It’s a great driving album, where Heartbreaker was an album to sit down and listen to. There’s some great swagger in a lot of the songs, as if he’s not really hurt by any of these girls, as long as he gets to play guitar and sing about it. Probably the easiest entry-point if you only wanted to listen to one Ryan Adams record.
Standout Tracks: “Somehow, Someday”, “Answering Bell”, “Harder Now That It’s Over”
Demolition (2002)
A collection of demoes and rarities, mostly from the Gold era. Most of these songs deserved to stay as demoes, but a few great tracks, including “Dear Chicago”, and “Chin Up, Cheer Up” save it. “Dear Chicago” is particularly great, especially in the way it was released. The song alludes to the same series of breakups covered in Heartbreaker and Gold, but from a distance - the moment when, looking back on a failed relationship, you wonder how that person ever drove you so crazy in the first place, when at the time they meant everything. Releasing the song on the same album as the breakup-tunes would be too close, on the next full album too out-of-place, but it’s perfect here as an afterthought.
Standout Tracks: “Dear Chicago”, “Chin Up, Cheer Up”, “Cry On Demand”
Rock N Roll (2003)
Love Is Hell (2004)
A quick n’ dirty rock album, and another record (originally released as 2 EPs). Both are pretty forgettable. This era is memorable though for Ryan’s infamous phone message to rock critic Jim DeRogatis, after DeRogatis wrote a negative review of an Adam’s show.
Standout Tracks: “I See Monsters”, “English Girls Approximately”
Cold Roses (2005)
Jacksonville City Nights (2005)
29 (2005)
2005 saw Ryan release three (3!) albums - two with his new band The Cardinals (both kinda awesome), and one by himself (kinda awful). Cold Roses is classic Adams - alternately brilliant and frustrating, a double album that could easily have been pared down to a really strong single album. To me it’s a great autumn album - I remember listening to it all the time one Fall walking around Parc Lafontaine. Again, he’s much better when he’s got good collaborators, and the Cardinals are a great backing band for him. The writing on this album is often great too, especially songs like “When Will You Come Back Home” and “Sweet Illusions” - still sad, still about breakups, but more nuanced than the directness found on Heartbreaker.
Jacksonville City Nights also features the Cardinals, but is a more straightforward album - playing within the confines of the country genre, just rocking through some really nice tunes. 29 is hard for me to remember, since I think I only made it through the whole thing once, and I felt that was more than enough at the time - it’s Adams at his most mopey and self-indulgent.
Standout Tracks: Tracks 2-4 on Cold Roses (“Sweet Illusions”/“Meadowlake Street”/“When Will You Come Back Home”), “A Kiss Before I Go”
Easy Tiger (2007)
There’s a new album out, and it seems OK. I don’t really have a strong opinion yet, which probably means I don’t really like the album that much. I will say that “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.” is his best song title ever.
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OK. That was longer than I thought it was going to be. Anyways, the music can probably sum it up better than I could. Here’s Ryan with the Cardinals playing a song from Heartbreaker:
As a last note, I thought this story on NPR has a pretty good summary of his career - for awhile, it really did look like he was going to be a huge star, but that’s probably not going to happen now. It’s kind of a shame, but totally understandable.
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