ryan adams and the cardinals - cold roses
there was a time i would have completely ignored this being pushed through my letterbox. i would have just hidden it deep in the archive in case my wife found it like some dodgy porn. 'you've got some country and western ?!?' she would scream as soon as the twang and emotions rippled through the house. but something happened last year. i listened to the much derided 'rock-n-roll' album, read a few interviews (especially the pitchfork one where ryan talks to the reviewer who really slated the album) and i came to realise that i like ryan. he has pissed a lot of people off, has played the celeb game to the max, released records that baffle his fan base and generally is being everything a rock-n-roll star is. hurray.
and amongst this 'research', i listened to the 'rock-n-roll' album a lot, and came to really enjoy the sheer 'saturday night + beer' mood of it, the 80's indie rock excess, and most of all the songs. so i tried out 'gold', which slowly began to reveal it's inner beauty to me more and more, admittedly i had to be in the right mood (ie melancholy), and the weather had to be grey but the album began to move towards the front of the pile more and more.
so when this new one arrived, i was already keen. but from the outset it's obvious something has changed. the cover is gorgeous embossed artwork, spread across the double cd cardboard cover - with the inner sleeve giving a childlike innocent picture of a bear handing a child a rose. it's quite simply a beautiful record to look at. no real presence of ryan anywhere, and then there are the discs. each cd is made to look like a record and lasts a perfect 40 minutes each. a trick that always works for me.
the man has decided to make a classic 70's styled country rock record with a backing band (the cardinals) and avoid all the previously travelled roads of his solo personality overload. the man has grown up.
and the music ? more of the same as 'gold', beautifully crafted country rock. some of the songs are mellow and easy, some are more upfront. ryan sounds great throughout, the presence of the full band flesh out the songs brilliantly, coming over like the perfect bar band, all relaxed and laidback in their roles. drop this album on the stereo on a sunday morning and feel the warm rosy glow that permeates the strummed acoustic guitars, delicate drums and rolling melodies. oh, and there is a great glammed up rock beast that sticks out like a sore thumb from the downtempo moods, 'beautiful sorta'. hilarious with its 'gimme a bear' opening before the glam-riff lets rip. sure it'll piss off the purists - but it's just a fun 3 minutes.
lovely stuff. thus making me declare "i am ryan adams fan', something i would never have expected 2 years ago.
bring it on.