Rock N Roll

Ryan Adams was famously drunk for about a decade of his life (he named his band Whiskeytown, after all), so it's easy to imagine the worst of his wild ways occurring right in the middle of recording Rock N' Roll, which, I think, is why it works. Adams is a major artist whose best albums seem without much unification or structure - you hear an album like Cold Roses and marvel at the songs individually more than the album as a whole. Well, Rock N Roll is a unified collection, moreso than any other of his records, and it's because his self destruction is so tantalizing and vivid here - his voice is scratchy, the guitars are rushed and angry, and the song titles alone are enough to justify an intervention ("Note To Self: Don't Die" anyone?). Still, that combo is as tonic as its subject matter - "This Is It" and "Shallow" open the record with bombast and pissiness, and the tracks fulfill it one after another - for the most part, at least. I could have lived without "Boys" or "Do Miss America," but for an album of self-destructive tendencies, a bad song or two should be expected. When it works best, in songs like "Note to Self," "So Alive," and "Burning Photographs," the songs perfectly capture the rush and thrill of the sins they describe, as does the overly calculated "soft" title track. Its best song, though, is the final one, "The Drug's Not Working" - a song that stands on the brink of thrill and annihilation for a time then finally falls over, which is, in its voyeurist excitement, even more of a thrill.

The criticism for this CD is in many cases undeserving. What Ryan Adams does on this record, he does well. In some cases, I found that the songs stuck in my head on the very first listen. Yes, there are some 80's and 70's sounding rifts, but there were some on Gold, Heartreaker, Demolition etc., you just got used to them. If you didn't get and they still "upset" you, you shouldn't want to buy this anyway.What it is--A straight forward rock record, which sounds like Mr. Adams attempts to sing with as much soul as he possibly can. Is it old school blues soul? No. It is Ryan throwing himself into each track--a plus if you liked how he did that on some of Gold's tracks. The fifth track on this CD sounded remotely U2-ish....and perhaps this was my hangup (yeah, after chided others for their hang-ups earlier) but I couldn't get past the mental comparison so it is not one of my personal favorites.Buy it IF---you are a huge fan of Ryan Adams! ( also buy the Love is Hell set for this reason...think they could have made one CD for 12.99?). Buy it IF you are even a remote fan of old school Rock-n-Roll (circa 1970-1985) because it made me want to roll down the window of my Barracuda and crank it as loud as it goes.....problem is, I drive a Jeep-possilby the same problems others have found here.

I love Ryan Adams. Sometimes. I love Heartbreaker. I love much of Gold. I utterly love "Love is Hell", and refuse to listen to it except as a complete album. I was resistant to getting this album, however, because of the negative press that it seemed to be garnering.Well, the press can be pretty stupid sometimes.This is not a difficult listen. This is not a symphony, an opera, a John Cage composition. This is exactly what it was labelled to be: Rock and Roll. Ryan has put together a collection of rollicking, hard rocking, fun music. Much has been made of the tips of the hat that he makes to other bands. Good for him. Music builds on itself, and right now people, many folks don't even understand that they are standing on the shoulders of the proverbial giants. Ryan does. He name checks, riff checks, voice checks all the music he loves--check out "So Alive" for his brilliant love letter to Morrissey. People who are unable to give in to the joy, the abandon, the wild passion for real rock and roll that suffuses this album like the joy of breaking out of school on a snow day, a beach day, heck, any day...well, that is a shame. Don't come to this album to heal your hurts. Don't come to this album to find the next great advance a-la radiohead. Come for a good time, and you will get it in spades. Bravo, Mr. Adams, keep em coming. Just as fast as you can put them out, we'll listen to them. Granted, we may make some of them into mix tapes...but hey, keep 'em comin.

Taken for what it's worth (read the title of the album so you're not confused), this album does just that - it rocks. Great variety of songs, great to hear the various influences scattered throughout (U2 to Velvet Underground to Elvis Costello), and simply great arrangements.It's easy to overlook his talent to craft a wonderful song, which in and of itself is not easy to do. Too much focus is on what he did before rather than what he's offering today.I like the White Stripes enough to listen to 3 or 4 songs off their last two albums, but after that it gets monotonous and repetitive (for the love of god please add a bass player and hire a real drummer!). While all the critics jump on their bandwagon for creating the best "rock album" this year, I wonder if they've honestly listened to this album enough times to let the magic sink in. This album blows Elephant away on so many levels it's not even a fair fight.I personally didn't jump up and down the first time I heard this, other than for a few tracks. After several listens, however, it really started to sink in. This is a great rock and roll album - the best so far in 2003 and actually dating back to 2002 when Beck's SEA CHANGE was arguably the best album but it wasn't really a true rock album, thus my proclamation!This is not his personal best (I'd vote for Demolition), but he's not competing against himself.Rock on.ebhp