this is the thread where i see if anyone gives a shit about the new Ryan Adams album

i like JCN so far, but there are some moments (especially lyrically) where its just LAZY. the ambience of the album i really dig, but the tunes aren't there, like they are on heartbreaker.

"earthy, rich with pathos and almost disconcertingly dedicated to the idea that life's only two constants are losing a lover you probably didn't deserve in the first place and losing yourself in the bottom of a fifth of Jack Daniel's."
-from the rolling stone review of JCN.

so yeah, uh its nothing new, nothing startling. on par if not a little better than cold roses.

i mean, there is SOME truth to that. i keep thinking about the dylan documentary last night, and just wondering in awe how anyone could have called Ryan Adams "the new dylan" (or how anyone could be called that for that matter)

Adams just makes the records he wants to make, and if he can keep his ego and self indulgent tendencies in control, the records can be quite good. but not great, and certaintly not on par with a bowie or a dylan.

His run of Stranger's Almanac -> Pneumonia -> Heartbreaker -> Gold was really sensational, notwithstanding some stuff I could do without on the second and fourth of those. Of course, he isn't a never was or will be a "next Dylan". The legitimate comparison is Neil Young.

that's the last reason i thought i would ever hear on ILM for disliking a piece of music. what do notions about contrivance vs. authenticity really have to do with music quality? (this was pretty much the point of my recent positive review of the alb.)

guest is norah jones, on what i thought was the worst and most out-of-place track on the album.

Jacksonville city nights is a great drinking album, much like Heartbreaker before it. but ive been listening to JCN almost non stop since ive got it, and again, THE SONGS ARE NOT THERE! i said it up-post: the ambiance is beautiful, but there are only 4 or 5 songs worth noting on this new album.

that said, "the end" is pretty fucking great... (oh jacksonville, how you burn in my soul!)

Adams (and Lost Highway) has something of a dilemma. He has a decent-sized, and generally rabid fan base (in the tepid fringes of which I include myself), who will buy pretty much anything he releases and still spend a fair amount to get their hands on the stuff he didn't release. That base seems to be expanding (certainly the concert audiences are), but not at a huge rate. The base is big enough to support a solid, but not sensational career. The attempts to grab mass-market stardom have failed miserably -- I think the heavily promoted Rock n Roll and the almost unpromoted (but O.C.-soundtracked) Love Is Hell sold about the same number of copies.

Obviously, he would have a better chance of breaking out if he edited more. But why should he? He probably isn't going to succeed that way in any event, and there are plenty of people who don't seem to care at all that he puts out a ton of second- and third- rate material with his (IMO) first-rate stuff. Eventually, his popularity is going to decline. But if he can sell 700,000 copies of three releases right now, why issue one release that, with a lot more promotion, would only sell half that at best?

The box set is going to be a bitch, though.

Are we there yet?

i have to include myself on the tepid fringe too. the reason i start ryan adams threads here is because to go to any one of his fansite is an exercise in stupidity. ryanadams.org seems more concerned with what kind of toothpaste ryan uses or t-shirts he wears. here, i figure i might stand half a chance of being able to talk about the music in a more mature manner.

no i'm not sure what i meant either!!
was in a post flu shit day at the office bad mood.

i have no problem with contrivance normally.
i like cocorosie for heaven's sake.

sorry about the blind alley red herring there!

"My Heart Is Broken" is now, er, broken--his Whiskeytown version is better. The duet with Norah is mediocre at best, their voices don't really complement each other, and the production on that one is crap given her participation. Adams is still playing way too much piano--he's barely competent and the songs suffer as a result. I also don't like his upper register vocals at all--at times on this record, the Hank tribute seems appropriate, but most of the time it just isn't endearing.

an album w/ some of this and some of cold roses would be pretty great.

always on my mind should have been on the official release! truly ridiculous strings.

Because the 50% of Heartbreaker that sucks is all Dylan impressions?

The duet with Norah

umm, I'm out

(JD, please don't take that the wrong way. I really appreciate your willingness to start non-snarky Ryan Adams threads, and for exactly the reasons you mention. Please keep doing so - maybe next month's release will bring me back!)

this is the post where i see if anyone gives a shit about the new Ryan Adams album

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ryuGFF7tL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Does even he give a shit about his new album?

Seems like he would need a Rick Rubin ass-kicking session at this point.

probably not -- word is the sessions are 2007 era outtakes from a couple albums back?

xp to red naggett

Maybe it's time for an early-2000s-dudes version of The Highwaymen, with Adams, Jack White, maybe Julian Casabalancas...

some old forlorn Whyskeytown song came up on shuffle yesterday and I remembered that for a while this guy was kinda alright

yup

i liked whiskeytown, and heartbreaker, and promptly cut the dude off after that. i have a sizable chunk of friends who still sorta pay attn to the dude, and it breaks my heart

I had no idea he was married to Mandy Moore!

http://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/_mar0303_ryan_adams.jpg

I actually liked his stuff with the Cardinals quite a bit. I've only listened to the first disc of the new release, but it didn't do much for me. Almost all of the songs are the exact same tempo and have pretty similar structures, kind of the "pop" Cardinals that falls halfway between the jammy Dead-like Cardinals and the country Cardinals.