Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams

2014

Pax Am Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Gimme Something Good  2. Kim  3. Trouble  4. Am I Safe  5. My Wrecking Ball  6. Stay with Me  7. Shadows  8. Feels Like Fire  9. I Just Might  10. Tired of Giving Up  11. Let Go



Man, I hope he doesn't kick me off this blog for saying it, but this album kinda sounds like early Bryan Adams...Think "Run to You" or something from that era...And that cover font looks awfully familiar...



 It also reminds me of various other albums that rootsy artists put out in the 80's...I hear a bit of "Scarecrow" by John Cougar Mellencamp,  80's Springsteen,  some old Tom Petty and a tiny scrap of "Tim" or "Pleased to Meet Me"-era Replacements...Simultaneously sterile and cavernous, yet gravel-throated and heart-rending...Oddly enough, it feels like an 80's throwback album without keyboards on it, which is a very difficult thing to convey when you think about it...

It's also, by far, my favorite Ryan Adams album...And possibly the best album I heard in 2014, which is hard for me to admit, since this was also a year that saw the release of a Stephen Malkmus and two Guided by Voices albums...But goddamn, this record is good...

Remember how those rootsy 80's anthems would be kind of cool until they inevitably reached some corny, overblown  chorus? Well, the simple fix to all that is never let the cool simmering verses come to a complete boil...No cathartic "Na na na's or "Oooo Sha la la's"...This adds an odd air of mystery and endless replay value suggesting a sort of infinite possibility...There are exceptions to this... "Feels Like Fire," finds a repetitive, laid-back, almost Motown-ish drum beat blooming into a knock-out chorus and "Gimme Something Good" would have been a huge hit back in '84...I can't shake the weird feeling that I'm hearing a song I once loved but had somehow totally forgotten about...A deju vu head-rush of a pop-rock single...

And the 80's MOR keeps on coming with "Kim," "Trouble," and "Shadows" that all sound like some playlist from my childhood in some alternate universe...And I'm this close to declaring "I Just Might" as Springsteen's finest Reagan-era release...This is one of those albums that I cannot pick a definite highlight...As every new song come on I find myself repeating, "Oh yea...This one is the best one..."

This is the exact type of album I'd always hoped Ryan Adams would make...I'm drawn to his more "rocking" side than the quieter stuff, but when he put out a full-on rock album with 2003's  "Rock N' Roll" it was a bit hit or miss for me...The songs either knocked my socks off or left me shrugging...Honestly, prior to this, my favorite Ryan Adams album was "Orion," but this lives up to the promise of those handful of stellar tracks that kept me coming back album after album...Holy shit, can we please have some more of this?

 Here's "Gimme Something Good" by Ryan Adams...This is a pretty good video...It kinda looks like the video for Danzig's"Mother"...Plus it has Elvira in it...