Ryan Adams has got to be the busiest man in show business these days, nearly 12 albums in since his debut with Whiskytown in 1996, with the second of three planned releases this year comes Jacksonville City Nights. Earlier this year he released his first album with this current line up of musicians called The Cardinals that are credited with music co-writing-all of the lyrics are penned by Adams. After Adams’s departure into Rock-N-Roll and mope rock, he has returned to his roots in alt-country with his excellent Cold Roses. The planned three releases fro thsi year explain why there were several songs played at his concert in Sandpoint that I didn't know.
Jacksonville City Nights is a more of a straight-ahead country tinged album with intermittent honky tonk overtones. Strong songs like “A Hard Way To Fall” and “A Kiss Before I Go” have some elements of honky tonk that I could do without, but the strong songwriting wins me over. That being said, a song like “Peaceful Valley” wouldn’t sound out of place on Cold Roses, which is till in heavy roatation on my iPod. It is still a Ryan Adams project, so there are a number of well-written tunes and they all feature strong vocal performances. However, I found his duet with Norah Jones on “Dear John” a failed effort, their voices don’t mesh well. I think he is more successful with the sparse ballads like “Silver Bullets”,”Pa", and “Withering Heights.” Another balladesque tune, “September”, a mopey ballad, could have been on his previous release Love Is Hell. Other standouts include the mid tempo “The Hardest Part” and “The End.” I don’t think this album is as strong as Cold Roses, but there are definitely some worthwhile tunes on the record. It makes me wonder what he has in store for his third release this year.
Ryan Adams is so prolific, critics dismiss him for his uneven output. However, if he released an album of his best songs every 2 years or so, he would be on the cover of Rolling Stone all the time. I love Cold Roses, and I can't wait to pick up Jacksonville City Nights.
Posted by: Eric | October 15, 2005 at 08:28 AM
You're preachin' to the choir here, I'm curious to see what comes next.
Posted by: MC | October 15, 2005 at 03:42 PM