Ryan Adams And The Cardinals

Cold Roses – (Lost Highway)

Well this is a first – reviewing this one at this late stage means that we’re posting it when there’s already a NEW Ryan Adams CD out.  Crazy fucker.

Ok, on to Cold Roses…

Our Mr. Adams has, wisely as it turns out, decided to actually cultivate a proper “band” for the first time since his Whiskeytown days.  As a result, it’s probably the most focussed release he’s put out since Heartbreaker – that is, focussed on the country stylings that introduced him to us in the first place.  Thankfully, Adams doesn’t mess around here – most evident by utilizing the talents of J.P. Bowersock on guitar and Cindy Cashdollar on steel guitar.  Nice.

But lots of impressive six-stringing doth not a good CD make.  Adams’ songs are the heart and soul of Cold Roses and they’re a pretty impressive lot.  While Cold Roses would probably make a finer single CD, there’s little wrong with a collection that includes songs like the gentle “When Will You Come Back Home?”, the rocking swagger of “Beautiful Sorta”, and the stellar “Easy Plateau” (Cashdollar especially shines on this one).  The uptempo numbers here are among some of Adams’ finer moments here.  “Dance All Night” is a particularly good example of how Adams can skilfully put together a song containing the better elements of both country and pop.

Things falter slightly on the sleepy “Meadowlake Street” but there really isn’t much more than that to make you press the “skip” button here.  Adams, for the time being anyway, seems to have appreciated that his country-flavoured past isn’t a bad thing (thinking it is probably explains a CD like Gold).

I hope the other 28 CDs he has planned for this year are as good. (Ok, 2 actually)