Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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104 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adams hits bullseye with newest album, May 4, 2005
This is a difficult review to write, because I still haven't been able to wrap up all my thoughts about this amazing effort. I will do my best to sum up exactly what makes this album the best work of his career.
If Ryan Adams has been knocked for something most often on his albums, it is that he seems to keep changing his sound. Personally, I'm not sure how it can be negative to continually grow and not dwell in one particular niche - but I'm not paid to write reviews. On this album, Adams hits to all fields - and sends out more than enough to keep all his fans happy.
There are those who want him to do an album more like Whiskeytown - for them he has written Sweet Illusions, When Will You Come Back Home, Dance All Night, Cherry Lane, and the first single Let It Ride. There are fans that want him to go back to the intimate acoustic sound of Heartbreaker - for them he has written Meadowlake Street, Now That You're Gone, How Do You Keep Love Alive, and Rosebud. There are fans that wanted something more like the almost British sounding Love Is Hell from last year - for them he has written Life Is Beautiful and Friends. Some fans want the vintage sound that Gold had to it - for them he has written Beautiful Sorta. Somehow, he has also found room to grow and put out great songs like Magnolia Mountain, Mockingbird, Easy Plateau, and Cold Roses - all of which sound like nothing Adams has done before.
Somehow, all these different Adams sounds come together perfectly into something that should not be dismissed as a prolific artist putting out too much. It is absolutely jaw-dropping to hear so much quantity and quality at the same time. Being his first double-album, one might expect some filler material. There is simply none to be found here. While there may be a song or two that you may not care for (Blossom comes to mind for me), odds are you'll find several other fans that have that track pegged as their favorite. To me, that is the reason I would consider this Ryan Adams' strongest album to date.
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179 of 195 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am pleased....and pleasantly so., May 3, 2005
First, to get something off my chest just because it's tarnishing my enjoyment of this CD:
Most Ryan Adams reviews can be divided into two camps: those who deride him as an egomaniacal poseur and those who herald him as a genius. We toss about "our generation's Dylan" for any twenty-something singer/songwriter (e.g. Conor Oberst), until they gain too much success; then we label them a sell out and complain that they mimic all the great bands we once compared them to. It's become as trendy to hate Ryan Adams as it is to like him. So, enough with ragging on him because he acts like a rock star and please, for the love of god, stop comparing him to Dylan. He's fantastic, but there will never be another Dylan and you only set yourself up for derision when you make that comparison.
Critiques of his music often center on one of three points: 1) he's "copying" off of other (presumably better) musicians; 2) there are many other more "innovative" artists out there (followed by a list of said artists); and 3) his lyrics are trite/full of cliches.
My response to those critics is:
1) since when did emulating the sound of other artists (particularly those that we like) become some sort of sin? I appreciate the fact that Ryan Adams' albums have a touch of the "Byrds and Tom Petty" (to quote another review for this album). According to these critics, music is supposed to be life-changing and, when it happens to influence another musician, they are supposed to forget the influence music has had on them. I don't get it.
2) "Innovation" is highly overrated (e.g. the Fiery Furnaces). I didn't anticipate the release of Cold Roses wondering what magic Adams was going to create using only a Fisher Price xylophone and a hubcap. And seriously, how much innovation can we really have? We're reaching a critical moment wherein everything's been said and every note has been matched up with every other note and the only way to be "innovative" will be to be nonsensical and out of tune (e.g. the Fiery Furnaces). (That being said, I do like Rilo Kiley and the Decemberists, although I would argue that there's a distinction to be made between "original" and "innovative", or at least in the way they are bandied about by music critics.)
3) I don't look to lyrics for some sort of life-affirmation or lesson. It's nice if it happens, but it's not something I demand of a CD. Occasionally, something happens in my life and I happen to listen to a particular song and the song clicks with me. Sometimes it just makes good driving music. If every song was filled with huge, heavy lyrics, all I would do is sit in my car and cry. As appealing as that sounds, I have things to do and places to go. And I will be listening to Cold Roses as I go about my merry way.
Sorry for the rant, but now on to the review:
After Rock N Roll (which I hated), I was concerned that he'd fallen over his own ego. Whether or not he's the monster people make him out to be, the new album is great. The Cardinals are a fantastic band, as spectacular on the album as they are live. I would agree with the reviewer who said the album's a mix of Pneumonia and Heartbreaker. If you liked either of those albums, you'll probably like this one. I haven't listened to it enough to say it's my favorite, but it is full of great tunes. If I was forced to put three songs on repeat for the rest of the day, I'd pick "When Will You Come Back Home", "Easy Plateau" and "Dance All Night." I've omitted "Let It Ride" only because I've already listened to it 1,000 times in the last few weeks.
Listen to it. If you like it, buy it. If not, buy something else. There's hardly any excuse these days to accidentally buy something that you think sucks.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Album of the year-2005, December 21, 2005
In the closing months of 2003, one of music's most prominent young songwriters released two drastically different, highly accredited albums before falling off stage and breaking his wrist while playing a show. At the height of his fame, the continually prolific, (and self-proclaimed "firecracker") Adams withdrew from the public eye for much of 2004 in order to get healthy, both physically and mentally.
At the end of a much needed year or so of peace, Adams' began touring with his new band, The Cardinals; playing moody, jam-oriented shows to sold out crowds hungry for new songs. Word began spreading in early 2005 that Adams had completed three new studio albums during his absence that would see release before the end of the year on Lost Highway records; the first of which was to be a criminally under-promoted double album entitled Cold Roses.
Before becoming a bona fide rock star in 2003, Adams' split his time playing county songs in old bars, busting band-mates heads, and writing candidly emotional songs with the proficiency of a sixties Bob Dylan. Although he did focus on diversifying his sound as his career progressed, Adams continued to be a childish ball of fire up until his (nearly) career-ending injury. With Cold Roses, Adams' reemerges as a thoughtful, mature songwriter; and for the first time in his career, a critical underdog.
Rather than writing a batch of songs and arranging them in the studio as per his usual methods, Adams and his touring band spent exhausting amounts of time perfecting their eighteen new compositions while on the road. The result is a timeless album saturated with subtle themes ranging from the vast American landscape, to death, loss, and of course, old time values and beliefs. Taking a less personal, more universal approach with his writing than usual, Adams and his band pay musical tribute to the distinct sounds of The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, ,and The Band while still maintaining their own brand of sun-drenched folk rock.
Spanning nearly eighty minutes over two discs, nearly all of Cold Roses is indispensable. From the dark epic of the highly visual "Magnolia Mountain," to the catchy (yet uncommonly eloquent) Carolina-country swagger of "Let It Ride," Adams has found more modes than ever to utilize his natural propensity for old-time rock music. "Easy Plateau," "If I Am A Stranger," "Dance All Night," and at least half a dozen more are all high points in Adams' ever-swelling catalog, thus making Roses conceivably his most accomplished compilation of songs to date.
With each new album he releases, you can always expect to also see a new manifestation of Ryan Adams: the ever-morphing rock n' roll eccentric. For allegiant fans who have long put up with him despite years of humiliating stunts and scandals, Roses is the ultimate pay-off. Seemingly matured and (finally) responsible for his tremendous talent, Adams has at long last released a complete masterpiece.
An album with peaks as high as Cold Roses only hits a few times in any given decade. Ryan Adams is right where he needs to be artistically; commercially underrated, yet without doubt, a top notch songwriter at the top of his game. While Roses might lose a chunk of the younger audience his last few albums have established, it should do it's part in winning back original fans and finally convince a good number of his older, skeptical critics that he's the real deal. Give Cold Roses a few unbiased listens-it might help you remember why you love music so much. I recommend this album over anything I've come across since Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album.
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