POLL: non-Heartbreaker Ryan Adams albums

This is pretty tough, because I feel like pretty much all of these have some great moments on them. Really tempted to go with Cold Roses right now, loved that Dead vibe. Jacksonville City Nights is pretty underrated too. Can't wait for the haters to come out for this one.

word. i spent too long thinking that my loving his music was "unkewl"

love is hell or cold roses

love is hell

Cold Roses, easily. But where is Whiskeytown?

Jacksonville City Nights, not even close imo.

Heartbreaker's really only half a great record. Tempted to go with Cold Roses just for the title track and "Magnolia Mountain," but Gold is probably the strongest album, maaaan.

thought about adding Whiskeytown and decided not to. i have no good explanation for this.

Man, I was a really big RA fan for about 3 years but haven't really paid any attention since around 2004 ish. As such I've never heard this Cold Roses you're all raving about. Hmmmm.

Gold.

I found Cold Roses really boring after being wow'ed by Jacksonville City Lights that same year. I probably never gave it a fair shake, though.

Oh wait, it was 29 I found boring. Maybe I've never listened to Cold Roses.

Of those I've heard, I like Cardnology. He sounds, well, newly sober, and the lyrics strike a chord for me.

I'd like it even better if I spelt it right.....

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Love Is Hell, easy. I also found 29 boring and then bailed with Cold Roses.

Easy, Tiger or Demolition.

cold roses & jacksonville both bore me, but i feel like ET distilled what was good about that whole phase into one (slightly over)polished record. III/IV has some great stuff on it, but they're more session throwaways than a record of intention and it shows. gold is too poppy for my taste, rocknroll has some badass stuff but too mannered, love is hell is a great one-off done by a totally alternate universe ryan adams, and "ashes & fire" is really mellow and nice and pleasant, but hardly reaching for anything.

easy, tiger.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I've not been historically susceptible to Ryan Adams' charms as a songwriter/person, but this self-titled album is fucking amazing and easily my favorite thing he's ever released.

Maybe he'll never release another album, and he'll be the only artist ever whose first and last albums are both really good, but whose 15 (or whatever) albums in between are mostly eh.

For better or for worse - but I'd say for the better - this new album sounds like how I imagine a major label War On Drugs album would sound.

oooh .. i have a soft spot for ryan adams.

i mean, after a few beers, i even like his contractual fuck off rock album, rock n roll.

so, i guess i need to get the new one...

imo cold roses deserved to win this

good call.

what's good about the new one? I never got this dude's appeal other than that really upbeat Dylany song about being young and high

That was the first song on the first album, iirc. This one is sad '80s AOR Ryan Adams.

This one is like Tom Petty plus Bryan Adams times the Smiths divided by Sheryl Crow to the Springsteen power.

That might be overselling it, but it does have some nice production and a really great guitar sound. Also key: neat, non-ponderous songs.

The new sounds like Hard Promises era Tom Petty meets Darkness on the Edge of Town era Boss. The songs aren't all great, but the production is amazing.

Hah, I wasn't trying to oversell it! It's just every bit the spot the reference disc that the W on D album is. Very satisfying. It does sound great, guitar tone and all. Who produced it? Adams himself, right? With Mike Viola? Dude's spent some time picking out the right amps, guitars and effects. Benmont Tench is all over this, too, plus Jeff Beck's wunderkind bass player.

I believe he shelved an acoustic album with Glynn Johns (that cost a fortune) to make this record and I'd say he made the right choice.

Not really feeling the "return to form" excitement around this one. It's solid, but nothing more...doesn't touch the heights of Cold Roses/Jacksonville City Nights-era IMO. Buzzfeed (?) published one of the best pieces I've ever read on Adams last month:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bobmehr/at-home-kinda-with-ryan-adams#ru8ebl

Lots of good details on the new album, etc.

doesn't touch the heights of Cold Roses/Jacksonville City Nights-era

It's a completely different thing, tbh. I'm quite fond of the JCN album (CR less so, despite how much love it's shown in this thread), but Ryan Adams bounces around a pretty big box as an artist and the things he does while exploring his country side are hard to compare to his folk side or his punk side or his 80s AOR side.

If there's one complaint I have about the s/t album isn't that he didn't fully commit by going full gated-drums, DX-7 synths and no acoustic ballads.

isn't=it's

"Stay With Me" makes me think of Richard Marx. Like, a lot. I think it's mostly the vocal.

I get what you're saying, I guess I mean that even if I dig where he's coming from on this new one - the production, especially - there is no song in this Adams mode that could be as good as, say, "The Hardest Part."

Yeah, can't vouch for the songs, per say, because I haven't listened to Ryan Adams in eons, possibly since "Heartbreaker," and even that I didn't listen to much. But I really like this disc as a mood piece.

This new self-titled album is indeed quite good, though to my ears it's really back-loaded as the second half has the killer bits. I loved his work until the Grateful Dead influences overtook his work with the Cardinals so this is a surprise return for me.

Easy Tiger or III/IV. No coincidence that they were recorded at the same time. Easy Tiger has the perfect vibe. III/IV has amazing power pop moments. If you're a fan of Big Star, the guitar hooks on III/IV are similarly addictive. Favorite songs off of III/IV: Typecast, Star Wars, My Favorite Song, Happy Birthday, Stop Playing with My Heart, Breakdown into the Resolve.

One of the easiest double album listens for me personally.

whoa, gspinn, we should hang. i don't think you'd find too many RA fans trying to decide between Easy Tiger and III/IV in this poll, but that's where I'm at.

ultimately, i'd vote Easy Tiger.

Agree on III/IV, which I would probably pick over Easy Tiger (which could be kinda weird since songs in III/IV are Easy Tiger leftovers, but considering RA's spotty track record isn't that surprising).

I think Gold probably has the best standout tracks, but drags on too long and is more uneven than those two.

It really is the mood of this new one that does the trick for me. Not sure perhaps better songwriting on all those dozen albums I haven't heard will make up for them sounding less interesting (to me). I've been off the Ryan Adams train for so long, and never really rode for him, that I think it's too late for me to get on again for more than one album at a time.

I'm not that much of an Adams fan either, I find his songwriting somewhat generic and I'm not sure I would care about it if someone else was doing it. But he gets away with it by being an amazing singer who can get great performances out of his average material. Supposedly he's on a streak with Ashes & Fire and his latest having been very good, but I haven't got to listen any of them yet.

He never struck me as an amazing songwriter until the latest album. As a fan of the self titled where do I go next?

hahaha i actually really like iii/iv too

This is probably the best place to ask, but is "The House Is Not for Sale" written from the point of view of ghosts? Because thinking it is makes it one of my favorite RA songs.

I think so, yes. That one's great.

He's been an amazing songwriter for nearly 20 years, but the releases have been pretty uneven up until the last two because he was so prolific. Which is not to say I love Ashes & Fire -- I actually think it's his worst solo release, save "29" -- but Ashes and the self-titled are clearly "new era / sober / not as prolific / more consistent" RA, as opposed to the torrent of stuff that came out between Whiskeytown and these last two.

If you like the new one, and leaving aside Heartbreaker, I think you visit Cold Roses, Jax City Nights and Gold next. They are different than the self-titled, but they are the most solidly "rock 'n' roll album full of mostly good songs" than some of the other stuff, though Jax is a bit more country.

From there, you get into more niche releases, i.e. the acoustic/rootsy one (Easy Tiger), the pop-rock ones (Rock N Roll, III/IV), the oddball records (Love Is Hell, 29) ... I guess Cardinology is "solid rock record" but I never liked it that much. Oh and there's a metal record in there too, called "Orion," a demos record, etc. Not to mention is vaunted catalog of unreleased stuff.

I saw Ryan a couple weeks ago and felt kinda opposite than "amazing singer who can get great performances out of his average material" (though his voice did sound the best I've ever heard it). To me, his catalog is SO great that as long as he's sober and focused and backed by a good band, the shows are going to be somewhere between pretty good and transcendent. It's hard to screw up material that great, basically.

But, I am a longtime RA fanboy. I've never thought he could do no wrong, but I do believe he's one of the most purely talented songwriters ever.

Cardinology's the weakest, averagest for me.

S/T > Jax > Love Is Hell > everything else imo

you may be right. it's right down there with Ashes and 29. xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ctzIr55QFM

my favorite song from iii/iv and i like it more than anything on the new one or ashes & fire and i can't entirely say why. something's missing in the recent records

"full of fire" is great though

"feels like fire"*

I may be the only one who'll rep for "Rock'n'Roll", but it's just so damn fun and he's channelling all the right alt 80s influences.

Any thoughts on the deluxe reissue of "Heartbreaker"? Are all the tracks on the bonus disc really unreleased?