Lost Highway
Building on last year’s “Easy Tiger,” Ryan Adams entered the same New York studio with the same pack of players to record a collection of consistent country-rock songs.
Having staved off a breakdown, “Cardinology” could be considered a breakthrough for Adams, who’ while not laying stellar songs to tape’ is coherent and seems, at least momentarily, committed to a sound.
He shares more of his ambling agony in “Fix It,” a song solidly in the singer’s wheel house. The brisk “Cobwebs” features a similarly familiar, arena-anthem Adams. Both “Sink Ships” and “Magick” have a cocky confidence that is immediately appealing.
The two aren’t quite there yet, but the Cardinals and Adams have found a nice place to live: a comfortable country home with life-worn walls.
Let’s hope Adams can stand sitting still long enough to tell more stories and to see where this road takes his songs.
“?Joe Wertz
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2008.