Customer Reviews

Gold

5 star:		(139)
4 star:		(77)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Gold came out in the late summer of 2001. The opening track, "New York New York," became something of a rallying cry for me (and other New Yorkers and Americans) after 9/11, even though the song-- as one colleague described it, "Tangled Up in Blue" played fast-- is about a girl, not a city. (Adams sometimes writes about a girl by using the name of a city he associates with her; see also, "Dear Chicago.") But the very fact that this tune evoked the familiar Dylan song is precisely what makes this work so compelling and timeless.

OK, so given the timing, that tune sucked me into the record, in a very visceral way. But the whole thing had masterpiece written all over it from the very first spin at my home in September of 2001. As my wife so aptly said, "It has that sweet familliar ring of every album you ever loved as a kid." Which, if you are our age, means it feels like Van Morrison, Neil Young, Dylan, Exile-era Stones, like that. It hits you in that "Into the Mystic," "Brown Sugar," "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" place. Do you like that place? Yeah, me too.

Adams is so prolific an artist that he is generally an album or two ahead of his fans; by February of 2001 he was playing these rockers to rooms full of alt.country romantics who wanted to moon with him over the Heartbreaker songs. But now, four years on, "New York New York," "Answering Bell," "Stars Go Blue," and "Rescue Blues" sound like songs you've known all your life, and are warmly greeted in concert as the masterworks they are.

Adams is a polarizing figure; people tend to have strong opinions toward him, either way. I obviously lean toward the "love everything he touches" camp. But divorced from the public persona, the music on this disc stands up to the closest scrutiny, taps into a classic vein defined by the artists listed above (and more recently, by Lucinda Williams and Counting Crows). I hate to compare one artist to others, but I find it a helpful construct in providing buying advice; its the "recommended if you like..." concept. If you've read this far, I think you know whether you want to buy this or not.

If not, I'll add that if I were to suggest a single title to someone interested in getting their ears wet with Adams, this would be the one. I think you can find traces of every direction he's gone in, before and since, on this album. It is long (70 minutes or so), but in a sweeping sort of way; I can listen to it all the way through and not find a single song I want to cut.

Very rarely do I buy a CD after hearing just one song off the album. I usually have a 3 song rule; if I hear 3 songs & like all of them, then I'll buy it. Late one night I couldn't sleep so I was watching MTV & they showed his video for "New York, New York" and I loved the song. A couple days later I bought the album, but was concerned that I'd hate everything else. I couldn't have been more wrong. It is absolutely amazing. His voice, lyrics & musicality are just supurb. It's few and far between that I'll buy an album and listen to it non-stop, and this is one of them. If he doesn't become a household name soon, then a lot of people will be missing out on talent that comes along so infrequently. With all the bubblegum crap that's out there he's a much needed breath of fresh air.

"Gold" is a masterpiece. Usually when I buy cd's it is for two or three songs that I've heard on the radio that I enjoyed. Sometimes there are a couple more surprises that I discover later, but for the most part the rest of the songs seem like filler. "Gold" is like a "best of" compilation that I would have created for myself of all my favorite Ryan Adams songs. Every song on the disk is great. "New York, New York" of course is a mainstream hit. "Answering Bell" has a great country-rock sound. My favorites though are the ballads "Goodnight Hollywood Boullevard", "Wild Flowers", and "The Bar is a Beautiful Place" (bonus track on 2nd disk). They are among the best songs I've ever heard. "When the Stars Go Blue" is also really popular right now with the Corrs and Bono having recently done a cover of it. This is a must have for anyone who likes music with an emphasis on accoustic guitar and deep lyrics. I went out and purchased "Heartbreaker", "Demolition", and the Whiskeytown album "Faithless Street", all of which are very good too. "Gold" is the way to go for anyone trying Ryan Adams for the first time. You will not be disappointed.

I've only known about Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown for about a year (my sister gave me Heartbreaker last Christmas), but I've spent that year getting my hands on everything related to him that I could. This album was everything that I could have hoped for and I can't wait until his next release--they just don't come out fast enough for me! The songs slowly work their way into your head and stick there. Adams is a master of the deceptively simple turn of phrase. Maybe you've heard "New York, New York" on the radio and you are wondering if you would like this cd or not. I really can't say. If you are just following the radio chum stream that this song got strangely mixed up in, I probably wouldn't know what you'd like. But if you get a sense that this cd may appeal to you, you should give it a try because it is super.

I thought twice before write this review. For once, much has been said already and I thought I wouldn't add much to it. Besides that, I think the album speaks for itself, so, why write a review? Although, since the album's release, I've read so much crap about it that I've decided to take a chance and try to express my opinion. Most critics have a tendency to make comparisons when somebody like Adams (after all, this is only his second solo album after Whiskeytown) starts to follow his own way. I don't think this a good thing at all, neither for the artist nor to the public that wants to check it out the work. I mean, how is it possible not to write the so called "americana style songs" (if you want to label it) without the influence of The Band, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and, why not, Van Morrison? Thank God the man has those influences! It shows, at least, that he's got a hell of a good taste for music. But to make comparisons with those artists is a whole different thing. It's useless. To put an end to it, the album is just great. So, never mind the bullocks and go for it. Ryan Adams has set his sails. Let's the wind do the rest.

I have never written a review on here before but I knew that I had to after I got this CD. I originally bought the CD because I heard "La Cienega Just Smiled" and "Harder Now That It's Over" on the TV show Felicity. Then I kept hearing a lot about Ryan Adams so I decided to go out and buy the album. I am soo glad that I did!!! It is always in my CD player and there are songs on this album to fit any kind of mood that I am in. There is something unique and enchanting about each and every song. The lyrics are so thought provoking and refreshing. I love all the songs but my favorites are "New York, New York", "La Cienega Just Smiled", "Answering Bell", "Rescue Blues" and "Harder Now That It's Over." I honestly recommend this album to everyone!! I think Ryan Adams is incredibly talented and I can't wait until his next album comes out!!!

quite frankly, looking upon the previous reviews of Ryan Adams' fresh and ambitious new album "gold", I am quite taken aback. What has he done to bear full brunt of the wrath of naysayers and skeptics? Some say he is trying too hard to seem "hip". Some say that he is not as talented as this musician or as eclectic as that one. Who are writing these reviews? It would seem as though they are written by a rabid group of harsh critics, still embittered that they never got that job for "Cream" magazine. Perhaps this is because the true fans of Ryan Adams can keep quiet, letting the music explain its own ingenuity. I was simply so taken aback by the jabs that you hooligans have taken at this up and coming star that I felt it necessary to defend the poor man. Gold is not so much an evolution from his first album, "heartbreaker" as it is simply a change of tune. While both are brilliant in their own ways, while "heartbreaker" tends to be brooding and quiet, Adams seems to jump out of the shadows in "gold", showing off his flippant and often manic personality with such upbeat tunes as "Firecracker" and "Rescue Blues". Every mini-climax of the album is checked by a more mellow, pensive song; "Answering Bell" is answered by "La Cienga Just Smiled". "Tina Toledo's Street Walkin Blues" is deftly countered by the perfect conclusion to the album, "Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard". Ridden with conflict? No, "Gold" goes beyond that. It is DEFINED by conflict. The almost instantaneous switches from manic to depressive may seem uncontrolled, as uncontrolled and erratic as Adams is rumored to be, but in reality, he handles the switches with an arrogant confidence, driving not only the songs, but the listeners as well. I dare any rash critic of this album or Adams' first to try and dominate such a group of instruments AND people as well as he has. Until you are successful, stop spouting comparisons to past musical golden calves. Adams is unparalleled, and should be treated as his own category, and not an urchin hanging onto the coattails of your favorite geezer.

I've waited a few years before saying this, but am now pretty sure that this album is my all time favourite from any artist. When I first heard this cd I could hardly believe how brilliant it was...I just kept on playing it...and I've never gotten sick of it. Although this cd should come with a warning for people new to Ryan Adams music: IF YOU BUY THIS, YOU'll END UP BUYING EVERYTHING HE'S EVER RECORDED, INCLUDING WITH WHISKEYTOWN. That's alot of cd's! But well worth it...2005 was an expensive year to be a Ryan Adam fan (with three releases). I feel "privileged" to be the owner of no. 995 of 1,000 of the colored vinyl Gold promo record - even if it cost me nearly $400.00 on eBay (haha, see what I mean). One day Ryan will top this album, some say Heartbreaker is his best so far (his first solo album). I prefer Gold just a bit more - but I'm just waiting for a better album (or equal) to this from Ryan. I'm sure he can do it - he almost achieved it with Easy Tiger. In the meantime though, thank you Winona Ryder!!! Without you, this album may never have existed - wow, I wonder how she must feel being the muse to this incredible masterwork. I wouldn't claim that Ryan (David) Adams is a genius...but I know that he's a musical genius, the proof is in listening to this.

Ryan Adams seems to be an ascending star in the music biz. Ultra-prolific, he cranks out good and sometimes great songs at a headspinning rate and seems to appear everywhere.

Gold, his second solo album after the breakup of his first band, Y'all-ternative rockers Whiskeytown finds Ryan in fine form. Moving away from his countryish roots toward more of a seventies style southern rock sound, Gold is as solid an album as any released in 2001. The first seven songs on the disk are anywhere from excellent to "merely" solid. Well written, sung and performed in a number of styles, they give the impression of a classic album in the making.

Then trouble sets in.

The three songs in the middle of the record, Nobody Girl, Sylvia Plath and Enemy Fire are the weakest tracks here. Though not unlistanable, the destroy the momentum of the disk. Nobody Girl is an overly long guitar workout which does not deliver as the centerpiece of the album. Sylvia Plath is just plain dull and misguided and Enemy Fire probably sounded good in rehersal, but goes nowhere once captured on tape.

The good news is that with the next track (Gonna Make You Love Me) through the end the quality makes a nice rebound, though not quite to the level of excellence of the opening tracks. A testimony to the artist's talent is that though there is nothing here that is new lyrically or sonically, this is still a fresh sounding album.

I get the feeling that Ryan Adams has the tools to create a classic album somewhere in his future. Gold is not that album, but is still worthy of your investigation.

I have seen other reviewers call this frustrating or not a masterpiece, but I am telling you, this could be a benchmark album along the lines of the Stones "Exile on Main Street" or Springsteen's "The River."

Let me say it off the top. I LOVE Whiskeytown's "Strangers Almanac." Think it was the best album of 1997. Bar none. I love Ryan's first solo effort, "Heartbreaker." I have warmed to parts of Whiskeytown's posthumous "Pneumonia." It's just NOT Almanac, and I have accepted that and I can start to view it for its own strengths and weaknesses now. For those twisted souls who don't know Whiskeytown, go immediately and buy "Strangers Almanac." Better get Wilco's "Being There" if you don't have it, too. You can thank me later.

Anyway, it's late 2001 and here comes this sprawling, 16 song (21 if you got the early edition with "bonus CD" (assuming it IS a limited run) like me) set. On top of the first solo CD and the Whiskeytown (rumored to have been a double CD waiting in the can for a year)that makes 51 of Adams songs on the street in one years time. SURELY that equals a glut or quality has been sacrificed. Well, folks, I am here to tell : IT AIN'T SO!!!

Adams may burn through bands like a three pack a day smoker goes through books of matches, (And just what did ex- Smashing Pumpkin James Iha contribute to Pneumonia anyway?) but producer/ multi instrumental talent Ethan Johns remains as the glue to all three discs produced this year. They all sound sonically similar, but it's apparent that Johns is interested in keeping Adams interested by reaching for whatever Adams is hearing in his head.

For example,'New York, New York' is a straight ahead rocker driven by some mad congas; which leads into 'Firecracker', a backbeated mover that quotes Bob Dylan on harmonica; which goes into 'Answering Bell', which, if he has any sense, will be Van Morrison's next single... I DID check and it is not a Morrison song, but damned if it doesn't sound like him (almost... Adams' voice isn't that pure or that deep.) with the Band circa 1972 complete with Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers doing his best Garth Hudson on the organ. 'Rescue Blues' quotes, to my ears, the style of Elton John's Madman Across the Water,(the album, not that song) complete with pseudo-choir arrangement. 'Somehow, Someday' sounds like a lost Neil Young track.

As for the BONUS disc, the five songs here are just as good as those on the regular CD. "The Bar Is A Beautiful Place" is a track too good to be lost on some B Side or bonus CD that not everyone will hear, but that's the way it goes.

Comparisons are the easy way out. Adams has a unique voice and touch. Adams quotes his influences without hitting you over the head with them, as the Black Crowes do on occasion.

I'll say it here and now: Ryan Adams could turn out to be this generation's Bruce Springsteen. He's prolific enough and he definately speaks as an American voice. Don't believe the "overhype" tag. Get this album.