Essential earcandy: Ryan Adams.

Oy!

Now I'm kicking a new thing off! It's called Essential Earcandy, and it's an opportunity for us to tell you and bit about the artists we love. I'll start with Ryan Adams.

Ryan Adams is a brilliant rock/alt. country artist. Things started in 1994 in the alt. country band Whiskeytown which he left in 1999 after two fairly criticly acclaimed albums, Faithless Street and Stranger's Almanac. After Whiskeytown disbanded, Adams went on to pursue a solo career.

The first Ryan Adams solo album was called Heartbreaker and it was released in 2000. It's a country album without much rock influence but already here, the songwriting is amazingly good. Despite favorable reviews, the album never became a commercial succes. This album is really worth giving a go if you're into alt. country like Wilco. Tunes worth checking out include Come Pick Me Up, Oh My Sweet Carolina and To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High). Oh, and it was guested by Emmylou Harris.




Only a year after the release of Heartbreaker, Gold saw the light. And what a record - I consider this being Adams' masterpiece. A perfect blend of alt. country and rock - from the raw, kickass Enemy Fire to the beautiful ballads, the piano-driven Sylvia Plath and When The Stars Go Blue and to the AMAZING guitar track, Nobody Girl, which becomes a juicy, fantastic, bluesy jam. This is really a masterpiece and it's now recommended by me to..... Well, everyone. A must have, in my opinion. Also, this album was actually quite a succes in Scandinavia, climbing into the top 10 in both Norway and Sweden.


After a release of demos and unreleased recordings in 2002 called Demolitions, 2003 saw the release of Rock N Roll which, as the title indicates, is a rock 'n roll album. Throwing his country influences over board, this album was more of a straightforward rock record, but not lacking great tunes. From the U2-ish falsetto disco rocker So Alive to the angry, dirty Note To Self: Don't Die (here found with an amazingly stupid anime video!) over the opening tune This Is It, this album is an absolute blast as far as what concerns guitar driven rock songs. The album recieved a mix of brilliant and lousy reviews and wasn't as much of a commercial succes as Gold. Still a fantastic album, though, this is a highly recommended album too!

Only a year after the release of Rock N Roll, Adams released the highly criticly acclaimed Love Is Hell. It was somewhat of a return to his alt. country origins. Still proving his amazing skills as a songwriter, tunes as the opening epic Political Scientist, the country-rock-ish title tune and the cover of Wonderwall are all absolutely fantastically brilliant. The style of Love Is Hell sound like something between Gold and Rock N Roll which is indeed a great thing. You might begin to see a pattern here, but - this IS highly recommended.


In 2005, Adams went into a new period. He started releasing albums as Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and 2005 resulted in 3 new albums from Ryan Adams. Ryan threw almost everything called "rock" away and went on to release 3 alt. country/folk albums. In my opinion, these are not really as interesting as the ones I've already mentioned, but here you go:

Cold Roses was the first release in the new "series" of Ryan Adams albums. Like the other two albums from 2005, Cold Roses recieved fine reviews in music media but the commercial succes was (like Gold) mostly limited to Scandinavia, reaching number 8 in Norway, number 9 in Sweden and number 31 in Denmark which indicates that Scandinavians have good taste in music which is also confirmed in my post about Norway. Sort of. Easy Plateau and Let It Ride (here live on Letterman) are actually both fairly fantastic tunes from Cold Roses.


Second album in the row was called Jacksonville City Nights. Again, fine reviews were plenty but commercial succes was lacking and this one didn't reach any top 20's on the charts except for, uhm, Norway and Sweden. The style of Jacksonville City Nights leans a bit more towards traditional country. As always, The Cardinals are an amazing backing band, groovy and tight as hell. Amazing musicians. Actually, I think you have to check out at least one of these albums out just because of The Cardinals.



29 finished off Adams' incredibly busy 7 months. Reviews were mixed and commercial succes was almost non-existing, not even reaching the charts in Norway and Sweden. (!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!!!!!!). Maybe people became a bit fed up with country-Adams here, I don't know. Still, as on all Ryan Adams albums, good musicianship and good songwriting is present here. 29 (maybe as the only Adams album) leans a bit towards folk music, too.




After the 3 country albums, Adams waited for 2 WHOLE YEARS before he released a new album. Escaping a bit from the traditional country music, 2007 saw the release of a new album.

Easy Tiger was a bit of a return to the rock inspired sound that had inspired some of his earlier albums, Gold in particular. This one is a mix of what Adams has done this far - Halloween Head is an amazing rock song (including Adams shouting "guitar solo!" right before a keyboard solo), and Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. is a beautiful acoustic guitar ballad. Tears Of Gold is pure country and The Sun Also Sets is a blend of it all. The album was well recieved by critics and had great succes for a Ryan Adams album reaching number 5 in Norway, number 7 in the US and number 10 in Sweden. The Cardinals are present on every track here.


Cardinology from 2008 is the latest offering from Ryan Adams. Again, it's a mix of rock and country and with magnificent songwriting and good musicianship included. The album might have been somewhat of a breakthrough for Ryan Adams in America, reaching number 11 on the charts there. Highlights include the fantastic single Fix It, the rocking Magick, the beautiful Sink Ships and the fine Cobwebs. A good, solid effort is what this is. Sadly, this album might be the last we'll hear from Ryan Adams in quite some time.



Also, you'll find lots of demos from Adams, including the Pinkhearts sessions, which are rock and incredibly fun. For example, check out Fuck It.... I Broke Your Cat.

Last year, Ryan Adams told that he would stop making music for quite some time. Very, very sad news since I think that all these albums prove Adams as a fantastic songwriter and a talented musician. Releasing 9 albums of new material and of this incredible standard is simply just impressive. Luckily, Adams has indicated that he will reform his old band The Finger with Jesse Malin.