Ryan Adams – 29
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Ryan Adams is such a beautifully complex songwriter. Most artists consider it a crowning achievement to get one album out the studio door in a year. Mr. Adams’ 29 marks his third release for 2005 and actually, should you count the 2-disk set Cold Roses as two separate entries, you could easily say he’s got four notches in his belt for 05. How is that even possible? I know an artist usually writes 40+ songs for an album that get whittled down to the dozen or so finished tracks. So either Ryan is writing a song-a-day or maybe he’s just not letting any dogs hit the studio floor. Given the high quality of each release, I’d have a hard time believing that he’s just releasing everything including his lullabies to his kitchen sink. I think the truth lies somewhere in between. I think we are looking at one of the most prolific songwriters of the age. One not hindered by the confines of a single genre. He’s someone who doesn’t mind selling GAP jeans if it means he can jam out with Willie Nelson. He’s an artist who’d be playing in the subway station, sleeping on the filthy floors, if it meant he could have an audience for his music. Welcome to Ryan Adams at 29. |
Grade: B | Genre: Alt-Country
Of this year’s releases, Cold Roses will go down as his ode to the Grateful Dead, and Jacksonville City Lights was his chance to tackle old school country like he was sporting a Hank Williams costume. In contrast, 29 seems to be a mix between the deeply contemplative material he waded through in Love is Hell fused with a couple of those upbeat, musically eclectic touches we’ve seen crop up in the past. It has a brevity that we’ve never seen before from Adams, clocking in at a mere 9 tracks. It doesn’t feel like anything is missing though.
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He starts things off in style with the dirty rockabilly track “29.” This is the kid brother to gems like Heartbreakers’ “To Be Young” and Gold’s “Tina Toledo’s Street Walkin’ Blues.” It has that full-bodied bluesy groove that digs its fingernails into you. I think Ryan’s next focal point disk needs to flesh out this side of his sound. Of all the diverse musicians in his soul, fighting for time at the mic, this is one of the most interesting troubadours. “29″ is definitely a great starter and one of the best tracks of the album. It is revisited again in the Spanish flavored “The Sadness” that makes you want to pick up a red cape, don the funny bean hat, and say “Ole!” In this bullfight, Adams is getting skewered like a shis-ka-bob. Lady heartbreak will always be this man’s greatest muse.
The focus on the storytelling seems to be a common thread binding this album. “Carolina Rain” is a love story, saddled at the corner diner of a small town. He unfolds the tale of an unspoken love that becomes hopeless tangled in the strings of life. “Strawberry Wine” is a quiet lullaby hinged on a soft strum and Adam’s lilting alt-Country tinted vocals. It sounds like a campfire song that the cowboys would sing after a hard day of wrangling steers. Lyrically, it is one of Adam’s sharper compositions. He chronicles a host of lives all pulled together by the common cord of strawberry wine.
I’d love to say that it’s a compelling ride from side A to B, but he gets a little mired down in a few of the depressing tunes. Strangely, the songs aren’t bad, but they weigh the collection down in their collective misery. “Starlight Diner” is one of the prime examples. This is waking up from a two-week bender from just losing your girlfriend to your best friend. You get the feeling he really doesn’t mind having his face grilled into the pavement, heart bobbing in the gutter. “Elizabeth You Were Born to Play That Part” is another quiet, piece deprived of warmth. It’s extremely poignant and quite beautiful in its execution. He shifts the tone of the song, introducing the guitars to the piano, just as it’s threatening to capsize in sadness. As the token maudlin piece, this would have been a defining Ryan Adams moment. As it is, it gets washed over in the general weeping willow syndrome.
The disk’s best moment comes during “Night Birds.” Another darker meditation whose brilliance is unleashed with its pendulum that swings back and forth from the blanket of dark to the spiking daggers of light. The best part of the song is when his voice echoes out in distortion repeating “Into the Ocean” to trail us to the close. Much like Cold Roses’ “Meadowlake Street,” it works because of its inherent complexities threaded within its notes.
29 isn’t Ryan’s best, due to the toll the darker moments take on the collection as a whole. There are certainly a handful of flirtations with greatness that make this disk a must for any fan of his work. If you are seeking a good introduction to Mr. Adams, get Heartbreaker or his finale masterpiece with the now defunct Whiskeytown, Pneumonia. Once you’ve gotten a taste for the possibilities of this talented musician, then you can take on exploring fun adventures like 29. You better get into him quick because if you wait any longer its going to take years to just catch-up with this manic songwriter.
Release Date: December 20, 2005
