29

Ryan Adams

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 20, 2005)
• Original Release Date: January 10, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lost Highway
• ASIN: B000BY9E2A
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,864 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Indie Music > Country > Alt-Country & Americana

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
On his third release of a most prolific year, Ryan Adams takes a break from his band, the Cardinals, to fashion an introspective song cycle with stripped-down arrangements focused on acoustic guitar or solo piano. After the propulsive, self-mythologizing title track opens the album in brazen fashion, forging an unlikely bond of comparison between John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and the early '70s Grateful Dead, much of the rest of 29 finds Adams at his dreamiest (the reveries of "Strawberry Wine" and "Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part") and most rapturously romantic (the aching falsetto on the lovesick "Starlite Diner"). He continues to take chances and not all of them pay off, with the underwatery echo of "Night Birds" and the over-the-top dramatics of "The Sadness" showing the downside of self-indulgence, though "Carolina Rain" suggests he can return to the alt-country prime of Whiskeytown whenever the mood strikes. With the intimacy of the closing "Voices," Adams sounds less like he is singing a song than sharing a secret. Refusing to rein himself in or pin himself down, he sings on the title track, "You can't hang on to something that won't stop moving." --Don McLeese

Recommended Ryan Adams Discography

Heartbreaker	Gold	Love Is Hell
Whiskeytown, Pneumonia	Whiskeytown, Stranger's Almanac	Whiskeytown, Faithless Street

Product Description
Japanese pressing of 29, Ryan's third and final album for 2005. 29 is a solo album of all new and original material. 9 tracks. Universal. 2005. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darker, piano-heavy solo record; less country; wicked good, December 20, 2005

By	J. Chasin (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

29, the third(!) Ryan Adams album of 2005, is dark, moody, elegiac, and brooding. And quite good. It is the kind of record who's charms are less obvious, and which unfolds itself to you over repeated listenings, when you least expect it.

Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights were pretty clearly country records, both cut with his new (and, it turns out, evolving) band the Cardinals. Here we get an Adams solo record, absent the band vibe and the country touches that flavor the two previous releases, and more of a serious singer-songwriter turn. Many of the songs are intricate and finely drawn stories and character studies, heavy on the narrative. Indeed the songs are all like little movies, as opposed to hook-laden slices of pop. This record is like midnight at the Indie Cinema multiplex.

The opening track, "29," is a rewrite of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'"-so much so that I thought it was a cover version until the vocals started. But he keeps it darker and more Westerberg than Weir, with acoustic guitars, electrics, and harmonica front and center in the mix; for all the obvious similarities to the Dead tune, it is more garage rock than hippie anthem.

"Strawberry Wine" is a slow plaintive story song in waltz time, sparse instrumentation, mainly Ryan's voice and acoustic guitars. "Night Birds" is a piano ballad, another minor key song, with a nice dramatic sonic effect that blends thunder and electric guitar on the refrain, "In the ocean..." By now it is clear that this is a "down" record, closer to Love is Hell than Gold, although it is always perilous to try and define a new Ryan Adams record in terms of an old one.

"Blue Sky Blues" is another downbeat piano song, Ryan's voice and piano augmented by a string section that enters midway through the song to amplify his mood and lend coloration. For a song with "blue sky" in the title, this one dwells an awful lot on rain.

"Carolina Rain" introduces some of the country lilt of the earlier records, especially through some tasteful pedal steel behind Adams's story singing. "Starlite Diner" is another piano lament, this time about a lost love. "The Sadness" brings the guitars to the fore with a sort of Flamenco flavor, and the Spanish flair is deployed to bring drama to the song throughout. It is a highlight of the album, driving and visceral, yet still "small," in the way an Indie film is small, the way the whole record is drawn to scale.

"Elizabeth You Were Born to Play That Part" moves back to piano balladry. It is probably the prettiest song on the album, and serves as its climax and centerpiece, piano and acoustic guitar sweeping the listener away in a gentle swirl of melancholy as the protagonist laments yet another lost love. "Voices" closes the record out, dark and foreboding, barely there, invoking vaguely religious imagery.

Resist the urge to compare 29 to Adams's previous work; with an artist this prolific, if you keep expecting the last record, you will be continually disappointed. My wife's one sentence review of 29: "I like it; it's a little sad but I like it." It takes me 400 words to say what she nails in a sentence. A small record in a good way, a sad record in a good way, a beautifully cinematic record that will reward repeated listening. Adams completes the hat trick and has got to be the unquestioned artist of the year.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mission Accomplished!, December 20, 2005

By	face02 (Schaumburg, IL United States) - See all my reviews

One of the most amazing feats in the last several years of music has to be the depth and quality of work that Ryan Adams has released in 2005. With this, the final of three releases in less than a year, he has provided a deeper look into his life than any of his previous releases. The concept behind the album is almost as interested as Sufjan Stevens' plan to release an album for each state in the US - one song for each year in Ryan's 20's. The result is his most personal, and compelling album yet.

The album starts with "29" - a rocking retrospective of his 20's, and the mistakes and regrets he has made. The comparisons to Grateful Dead's "Truckin" are obvious - but pay attention to the introspective lyrics, and not the heavy-handed borrowing from his idols. The album continues to tell interesting, albeit heartbreaking, stories of both Ryan's life and the other characters that he introduces - as he has on previous releases. From a storytelling perspective, the album may not get any better than "Strawberry Wine" and "Carolina Rain". They really are standouts not just on this album - but in Ryan's incredible career. "Strawberry Wine" is all about not wasting your years, and making sure that you "get your seeds in the ground" before it is too late to have a family - or as Ryan puts it, "flowers". "Carolina Rain" weaves a fascinating tale of a woman who leaves a wake of death and destruction behind her with each verse.

For fans of Ryan's piano ballads, there are some great one's on this album - "Night Birds", "Blue Sky Blues", and "Starlight Diner". Each song has it's own charms. "Night Birds" may be slightly flawed from a production standpoint, in that the end of the song seems a little to cheesy with the reverb effect laid on thick to symbolize the characters crashing into the ocean. It is still a very strong song lyrically. "Blue Sky Blues" is an upbeat song about letting go of the worries and troubles that you're feeling, and just letting your problems out from time to time. "Starlight Diner" is the one that was probably my least favorite on the album upon the first listen - but has grown to become one that I continually go back to. The tells the story of Ryan waiting in a diner for a woman, who seems to have blown him off. Haunting, and beautiful.

The two strangest, and most fun songs, on the album are "The Sadness" and "Voices". "The Sadness" is Ryan playing flamenco guitar. No - I'm not kidding. Listening to it, always makes me feel like a Western Gunfight is about to break out in a Leone film. The story told throughout the song is great - Ryan vs his demons. Using the flamenco guitar was a brave, and brilliant, move. "Voices" is about.... well, I haven't quite deciphered what it is about yet. It's just Ryan and an acoustic guitar. Hauntingly sad. Seems to be about Ryan loosing his mind - or at least that's how I've taken it. The vocal delivery on "Don't listen to the voices in the past, they lie" is great.

I've saved the best song for last - "Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play The Part". In my opinion, this is the saddest song that Ryan has ever written. It is about a friend of his who had a miscarriage late into a pregnancy, when they already had a name picked out, and never having really recovered. As heartbreaking as some of his music has been in the past, this song just tears your heart out and destroys you. The line "I'd tear myself in two, just to hear you breathe" is brilliant in its brutal honesty. How someone can have not gone through this themselves, and write something this touching and deeply moving, is amazing. Best song on any of the three albums this year.

To be honest, I downloaded this album about a month ago when it was leaked to the net - yes, I've already gone out and BOUGHT it today. The concept was too interesting for me to pass up the opportunity for a listen. Upon first listen, I was honestly disappointed. I didn't feel like it was as strong as Cold Roses or Jacksonville City Nights. Upon further listens, the impeccable songwriting has won me over. To those who have said Ryan should have chopped up the three albums this year, and created one great one - I ask you, "How?" Each album has its own feel, and serves its own purpose. Songs from this album would not fit well on JCN or CR - and vice versa.

Brilliant album, to end a ridiculously productive year for the most underappreciated artist going today. Buy this album - support this artist!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Shocked, January 16, 2007

By	Nicholas Inglis "Liberal, Christian, Musician." (Northbridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm relatively shocked at the negative reviews of this album. Lyrically this is one of Ryan Adam's best. Adams is storytelling throughout the album, you're getting not simply snapshots but life stories all with the poetic subtlety and attention to wording that is nearly nonexistant in all popular music.

Ryan Adams doesn't go full out country, doesn't go full out folk, doesn't go full out pop. This album really spans the spectrum of Adam's career showing the flexibility of this astonishing artist. One of the prior reviews of this album says to buy it last, I'd like to completely contradict that message. Buy this album first, find the Ryan Adams that reaches your pallette best and then go from there.

Highlights: "Blue Sky Blues", "Starlite Diner", "The Sadness*"

*One of my favorite songs of all time.