Artist: Ryan Adams
Album Title: Cold Roses
Label: Lost Highway
Bones:
Summary: Editors? I don't need no stinking editors!
Reviewed By: 'Disco' Stu McPhee

Ryan Adams may well the dumbest fucking artist to walk this earth. In an era of two year breaks between records, to be able to release an album a year is seen as keeping his fans more than happy. So when he dropped two albums on us on the same day (2003s 'Rock N Roll' and 'Love Is Hell') critics began asking who was actually running quality control down at Lost Highway records. However those in the know knew all too well that one of them was the real record while the other was recorded merely to shut Lost Highway up. No prizes for guessing which record was which.

Now it is revealed that in the year of our lord 2005, we will be graced with not one but three new Ryan albums. To the hardcore fans, whilst the promise of three albums in 12 months seems quite salivating it should be met with a little degree of scepiticism. Though some of Ryan's vast catalogue of unreleased material has gold written all over it (seek out '48 hours' and 'Destroyer' for starters), there are reasons why some things get the green light while others are left to be found on an FTP site years later.

History has often shown that one classic album is better than two (or in this case three) mediocre ones. I know my homeboy Nelly is with me on this point. But then Nelly hasn't been known to bang out an album's worth of material at the drop of a sideways cap has he? So with the odds so much stacked against him, Ryan says fuck you all and takes the points in round one of a scheduled three round bout with 'Cold Roses'.

Did I happen to mention it was double album as well? Over 18 tracks (or 19 if you're lucky) 'Cold Roses' is a return to the heady days of Ryan's 90s alt.country outfit Whiskeytown. Thanks to new back-up band The Cardinals, Ryan songs of love lost and often scorned (check out 'Sweet Illusions') are brimming with pop melodies that keeps him one step ahead of his contempories. Where Adams has the goods over say Bright Eyes (another artist who has tried the simultaneous album stunt) is that Adams has hooks aplenty to shell out and brilliant lines of lyrics that will stay with you for some time.

Take 'Cherry Lane'. What starts as an infectious honky tonk ditty (complete with cheesy sound effects) sharply turns into an awe inspiring coda with Ryan repeatedly pleading "I can never get close enough to you." Speaking of catchy, 'If I Am A Stranger' is a great mid-tempo track that bounces along with that best that Whiskeytown once offered. Having already been released as a stripped back soul-bearer on 7 inch vinyl a few months ago (along with 'Now That You're Gone'), opinions are divided on which is the superior version. The good time version on the album works well because it still brings home the great line of "I will try to be there for you, If I can...but what if I can't?"

Adams also continues his love affair with Brit-pop on the celebratory 'Life Is Beautiful', a song which sounds a little out of place with the mood of the rest of the album but Ryan has never been one to do things by the book. It is a shame the song wasn't the last track as it would've been a fitting finale.

Being a double album though (despite the fact the songs could well fit on the one CD), it was inevitable that there would be a few fillers. The second disc in particular has the two song stretch of 'Rosebud' and 'Cold Roses' towards the start that will have people wondering if Ryan has gone too far. But name me a double album that doesn't falter in places.

No, the 'White Album' certainly does not qualify.

Bravo Monsieur Adams. You have fought valiantly and won. I look forward to round 2 in a few months time. Dumbest artist ever? Not even close.