By Daniel Grant
Throughout his almost unimaginably prolific career, Ryan Adams has been nothing if not a stylistic chameleon. After starting off as one the early leaders of the alt.country movement with Whiskeytown, he has drifted from fairly mainstream rock to New Wave throwback songs to authentic sounding honky-tonk material to oddball covers to songs that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Faithless Street or Strangers Almanac, often within the same album. Adams has often been accused of being unable to edit the tidal wave of songs he writes and has often settled for quantity over quality, on his way to releasing a staggering 14 albums since Whiskeytown debuted in 1996. Every record has something to recommend it and he has developed a loyal and devoted fanbase, as a result. Somehow, though, the whole has usually been less than the sum of the parts on a typical Ryan Adams album.
The exceptions to this hit-and-miss approach have been the times when Adams focused less on the stylistic authenticity of his sound and just let his songwriting muse lead him wherever it wanted to go in pursuit of great tunes. Last year's Easy Tiger was one of Adams' best records because it played like a greatest hits record and touched on almost all of the themes and styles Ryan Adams has explored over the past decade. Cardinology, named after his backing band, The Cardinals, may be even better. While there is no instant classic like Two, the new album is full of satisfying songs, great musicianship and a sense of a deepening maturity and emotional resonance that Adams' earlier work has always hinted at.
From the opening Born Into a Light, it is clear that Adams is in fine voice and the songwriting is detailed and fully realized in a way that has often eluded him in the past. The first single, Fix It, is a mid-tempo bluesy number that finds Adams lamenting past romantic mishaps with the simple but plaintive declaration "I'd fix it if I could." Magick sounds like an outtake from a mid-80's Stones album, complete with a monster guitar riff like the kind Keith Richards used to toss off before he became Johnny Depp's pirate stunt double. Natural Ghost is a gentle country ballad with a falsetto chorus where Adams, perhaps directly addressing his past critics, sings "I am more than you think I am." It is a strangely affecting pronouncement coming from someone with such a reputation for mischief.
Cardinology closes with the powerful Stop, where Adams, accompanying himself on piano, channels Neil Young from After the Goldrush and seemingly addresses his past excesses and stint in rehab with the line "there is a line that must be walked," before concluding "if you wanna make it stop, then stop." This is some of the most clearheaded and powerful music of Ryan Adams' career and it leaves the listener anxious to see where his enormous talent will lead him in the future, now that it looks like he has harnessed his demons and focused his considerable energies in the right direction.
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