| Music Review | Josh Hinkle |
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights
If you know anything at all about Ryan Adams, you know that you never really know what you'll get from him from record to record. Good, bad, middle of the road, country, rock, or somewhere in between. I think that's a compliment to his ability to write great music, though (well, apart from the "middle of the road" comment). The fact that he so easily moves between genres and sounds right at home doing it is a testament to his ability to connect with his craft on a very high level, one not usually experienced by most performers.
On
this album, however, Adams picks a style and sticks with it
from start to finish - country. Pure, old style country
like your daddy used to listen to, complete with piano,
steel guitar, very little in the way of drums, fiddle, and a
few nice drink up sing-a-longs. These 14 songs are designed
to make you miss someone, maybe cry in a beer or two, but
not to be remixed as a dance song. There's just no room for
that here because this record is too busy kicking your heart
around the bar. While it visits most country music clichés,
there is a certain something to it (be it his phrasing,
strength of voice, what have you) that keeps it from being
run of the mill.
Surprisingly, one of the weakest songs on initial listens is his duet with Norah Jones, "Dear John". Even on repeated listens their voices never really mesh together too well, and the lyrics, if you really look at them, don't really lend to being a duet. However on repeated listens the song becomes a very haunting, thoroughly heartfelt, almost dire lament of a dead husband or wife. I still think it would have worked better with just Norah Jones singing and the band accompanying her on instruments, but I’m sitting in Ft Worth in shorts and these guys are rich, world traveling stars, so just goes to show what I know.
Standout tracks: The End, Hard Way To Fall, The Hardest Part, My Heart Is Broken
Fun Fact: Ryan Adams is scheduled to put out 3 full-length albums in 2005. And 2 are to be double albums.